Nobody dissects political sensibilities like America's foremost present-day novelist, Tom Wolfe. From his latest, "I Am Charlotte Simmons," here's a passage about a university president and a left-leaning professor who are clashing over an errant student athlete, but who apart from this dispute, have a set of beliefs in common. See if this rings any bells.
Both instinctively sided with the underdog; police violence really got them steamed. Both were firm believers in diversity and multiculturalism in colleges. Both believed in abortion, not so much because they thought anyone they knew might want an abortion as because legalizing it helped put an exhausted Christendom and its weird, hidebound religious restraints in their place. For the same reason, both believed in gay rights, women's rights, transgender rights, fox, bear, wolf, swordfish, halibut, ozone, wetland, and hardwood rights, gun control, contemporary art, and the Democratic Party.
Overall, I give "Charlotte Simmons" a "B." It's a fine, insightful and very sociological page-turner, like Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" and "A Man in Full." But the subject matter - the cultural wreckage and opportunities for individual enlightenment at universities - is perhaps already well understood by many readers. In contrast, Bonfire's dissection of New York City high finance, high-society and racial politics; and Man in Full's epic tale of Southern manhood were both more out of the ordinary and compelling.
Nonetheless, Charlotte should be required reading for all parents sending their kids off to college, and for the kids themselves. As always, the journalistically-trained Wolfe did comprehensive field research for this fictional treatment. His portrayal of modern college life is both hilarious and sobering. The upshot: your kids need judgement, more than ever. Which of course is already clear these days by the time they're in sixth grade. If not sooner.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 29, 2004 04:36 PM
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Tracked on August 3, 2005 11:15 PM
Wolfe is clearly world-class, and tops my list of favorite contemporary writers. This is not the first review I've seen of "I am Charlotte Simmons" where the reviewer has said Wolfe is still on top of his game. My girlfriend has it at the top of the list of Christmas gifts for me.
Posted by: Jeff at November 29, 2004 05:58 PMAdd'l comment: Jacob Weisberg of the New York Times Book Review says, "You may never put down a Tom Wolfe novel. But you never reread one, either."
I must wholeheartedly disagree. I've gladly re-read four or five Wolfe novels, once they have aged properly on my bookshelf. They are better the subsequent visits than they were on the first.
Posted by: Jeff at November 29, 2004 06:49 PMMatt, as always, you are telling it like it is! A few weeks back, in my column, I couldn't resist the obvious - you are Seattle's Tom Wolfe...
http://www.zwire.com/site/tab2.cfm?newsid=13347637&BRD=855&PAG=461&dept_id=524071&rfi=6
Posted by: P. Scott Cummins at November 29, 2004 09:10 PM