Tom Wolfe is the author of more than a dozen books, among them The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, I Am Charlotte Simmons, and Back to Blood. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he earned his B.A. at Washington and Lee University and a Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale. He received the National Book Foundation's 2010 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in New York City.
Wolfe (The Bonfire of the Vanities) here returns to familiar themes: race, sex, class, and society. Set in Miami, the novel (with some digressions) ostensibly tells the story of Nestor Camacho, a Cuban American policeman, but as with Wolfe's other fiction the real focus is on larger issues in American society. And as is the case with his other books, this broader focus is a weakness. The characters are secondary to the wider themes, often to the detriment of a listener's interest in and engagement with the story. This is alleviated to some extent by the fine narration by actor Lou Diamond Phillips but eventually makes this a less-than-stellar audiobook experience. Verdict Of interest to Wolfe fans.-Wendy Galgan, St. Francis Coll., Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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