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Title: The Right Stuff: A Novel by Tom Wolfe ISBN: 0553381350 Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd Pap) Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.42

Rating: 5
Summary: The Write Stuff!
Comment: What do you get when you mix an historian and a world-class writer? The Right Stuff. Tom Wolfe takes us back to a black and white time when America was apple pie and comic book heroes--at least in nostalgic hindsight. Amidst these glory years of the '50s and '60s there was trouble brewing, however. The Russians were winning the Space Race. Up to the plate step a group of true blue American heroes, men like John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, and Chuck Yeager, men with the Right Stuff. Together they overcame technical barriers, tragedy, and the limits of human endurance to prevent the Soviets from controlling Space, the high ground from which they could drop nukes on us at will.

This superbly told story brings history alive. We are brought into the lives and heads of these complex real-life characters, family men who risked 25% mortality rates to "press the envelope" first as test pilots and then as astronauts. We cheer as the records fall and mourn the loss of those who "crash and burn."

Full research, high use of language, insightful character analysis, and exciting drama. You can't go wrong with the Right Stuff. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

Rating: 5
Summary: A great ride
Comment: Tom Wolfe's rollicking style (exclamation points!) can take a little getting used to, but once you settle in, you'll find that this is not just a fun-to-read book, but a well-written one too.

First, Wolfe clearly did his research, filling the story with details and facts which prove illuminating (I do wish he included dates more frequently; sometimes it's hard to tell when an event is taking place). His detailed descriptions of the flights of Alan Shepard, John Glenn and Chuck Yeager practically put you in the pilot's seat.

Second, he manages to capture the emotions and feelings of the time, showing the competitive nature that drove the astronauts, how their wives wanted respect, and how the public adored their new space heroes.

Finally, he ties it all together with some good philosophical insights. The Right Stuff! Single Warrior Combat!

My only lament about the book is that Tom Wolfe makes it look so easy. Too many writers since then have tried to imitate his style -- but without doing the fundamental research that makes a good story. The result can be tedious and superficial writing.

Rating: 3
Summary: A good read, but not without problems
Comment: With all the hype over A Man In Full (and, having previously read Bonfire of the Vanities), I decided to read The Right Stuff over the Xmas holiday to check out Tom Wolfe's nonfiction work. I've always had a fascination with the space program, and so was primed to read the story about its origins in the U.S., about which I had known very little.

While I enjoyed the book, however, I was left feeling vaguely unsatisfied. I think the main problem stems from what Wolfe mentions in the Forward: what he set out to write about (the space program) was not exactly what he got interested in (the test-flight program and its unique "fraternity"). As a result there's an odd sense of disinterest in the actual Mercury program--you can almost feel Wolfe's relief in the last chapter when he returns to Chuck Yeager and a particularly harrowing plane flight. In one sense this works to the book's advantage, as it exposes what I think is his main theme: the great gulf between the tightly-controlled, relatively underwhelming Mercury flights (compared to those in the test-flight program), and the extraordinary national response to those flights. However, to explore this theme better I wish Wolfe could have gone into more depth on what was happening politically with the program. I also wish he could have gone further forward in history so we could see how the astronaut evolved from a fighter-jock to the more erudite scientist that we today associate with NASA.

I did enjoy the book, overall, and I think it provides a unique and non-jingoistic (at least less so than, say, the movie Apollo 13 or the miniseries From The Earth To The Moon) look at the early U.S. space program. Just don't expect a completely satisfying experience.

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