Customer Reviews

In Our Time by Tom Wolfe

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"In Our Time" examines, through essays and sketches, the fluxtuating cultural norms of 1970's America. It is a sort of logical literary culmination of Wolfe's "Me decade" works: The onservations of "Radical Chic," "Mauve Gloves and Madmen," and even bits of "The Painted Word" resonate in this more succinct and cutting collection. The "Me Decade" spawned countless small groups of so-called free thinkers, self-healers, and folks liberating themselves from the brutal tyranny of the worlds most prosperous economy. In "In Our Time," Wolfe is most interested with these people, whether they be the newly prosperous prole tearing up the roadways in monstrous autos, the bell-bottomed middle manager smoking marijuana during the lunch hour, or the literary, artistic, and political elements who fashioned themselves in response to wanton secularity. In addition to short essays, some pulled directly from his earlier books, Wolfe compiles and adds to his earlier drawings. These are wonderful to see in a large format, where Wolfe's rough, yet funny and insightful observations on the human body (specifically an American one) become all the better to revel in. Wolfe wonderfully expresses the basic silliness of fashion consciousness in the 1970's through sketches of hopefully hip septegenerians and young punks as dandies. In addition, the short essays, especially the opening comments on the end of the decade, are vintage Wolfe. Unfortunately, this edition is out of print and hard to find. However, it is the coffee table accesory for any fan of Wolfe or of that bitter pill of a decade we call the 1970's.

"In Our Time" examines, through essays and sketches, the fluxtuating cultural norms of 1970's America. It is a sort of logical literary culmination of Wolfe's "Me decade" works: The onservations of "Radical Chic," "Mauve Gloves and Madmen," and even bits of "The Painted Word" resonate in this more succinct and cutting collection. The "Me Decade" spawned countless small groups of so-called free thinkers, self-healers, and folks liberating themselves from the brutal tyranny of the worlds most prosperous economy. In "In Our Time," Wolfe is most interested with these people, whether they be the newly prosperous prole tearing up the roadways in monstrous autos, the bell-bottomed middle manager smoking marijuana during the lunch hour, or the literary, artistic, and political elements who fashioned themselves in response to wanton secularity. In addition to short essays, some pulled directly from his earlier books, Wolfe compiles and adds to his earlier drawings. These are wonderful to see in a large format, where Wolfe's rough, yet funny and insightful observations on the human body (specifically an American one) become all the better to revel in. Wolfe wonderfully expresses the basic silliness of fashion consciousness in the 1970's through sketches of hopefully hip septegenerians and young punks as dandies. In addition, the short essays, especially the opening comments on the end of the decade, are vintage Wolfe. Unfortunately, this edition is out of print and hard to find. However, it is the coffee table accesory for any fan of Wolfe or of that bitter pill of a decade we call the 1970's.

If you've never seen a cartoon by Tom Wolfe, it's a surprise and a real pleasure to see that he draws as brilliantly as he writes.

In Our Time has 89 of his cartoons (and a couple essays). You'll want to save it and look at the cartoons every couple of years -- "The Maternal Instinct," say, or "No. 1 The Modern Churchman," or maybe "The Man Who Always Peaked Too Soon," or the cartoon of a hugely fat Edward Kennedy wearing a tiny bathing suit, with a roach clip, a sacred heart locket, a coke spoon and a crucifix, each one dangling in his chest hairs, on its own separate chain.

You'll have your own favorites. Possibly the two cartoons about Jimmy Carter. They're especially sweet.

Tom Wolfe certainly has talent with pen & ink, and some of the caricatures show a fine eye for caricature. Unfortunately, beyond this aspect these illustrations are like Ralph Steadman without the intensity, or pale imitations of the Munich artist Heinrich Kley. They have none of the elegance or humor of Kley's work, in fact, most of the miniaturized people make little sense in Wolfe's context. His variation of line weight and overall tonal distribution leaves something to be desired as well.

He is insightful and incisive. He notes and cuts away the nonessential to reveal the underlying...nothingness of the 1970s.

"The Man Who Always Peaked Too Soon" is brilliant. Great drawings..and mini-essays.

Check it out -- large format hardback, 1980 printing by Farrar Strauss and GirouxIn Our Time