Customer Reviews

The Purple Decades-A Reader

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If you're unfamiliar with Tom Wolfe's writing, you're in for a treat. Imagine a gentlemanly fox in a trademark white suit who has the power to look through the clouded glass of current events and see everything within for what they are, or in the case of The Purple Decades, for what they were. Like Voltaire, there's a delicious joy in skewing bombast and hipocrisy. Check to see if the decades in question are of interest to you and then trust Mr Wolfe to deliver his finely honed, razor sharp critiques.

This book is 21 previously published stories that originally appeared in magazines and were then published in previous collections.

So, this is really a " greatest hits " spanning the years from 64ish until 79ish.

It covers the New York art scene through to an excerpt from the "Right Stuff" on Chuck Yeager.

Some of the pieces are dated but the majority hold up and could have been written last week. Although that isn't correct because there is no one writing for magazines today that come within miles of Mr. Wolfe's ability.

This is a great over view of his articles and is recommended because , oh my, how this man can write, with apologies to John Hiatt.

This is a fantastic sampling of Wolfe's work. Some parts I have re-read countless times. Wolfe is among the best writers we have. (And this book is nonfiction...which is why I'm glad his next book will be nonfiction).