Tom Wolfe gone. For years I thought Bonfire of the Vanities to be an unsurpassable

[eastgermanautos]

I had no idea what this even was but after googling it (you aren't the only one who can google, Burney ) I am unconvinced re your view.

Firstly, because someone was a champion of something that doesn't necessarily mean they are particularly good at it. Secondly, I loved In Cold Blood but as mentioned, found Electric Kool Aid not only hard work, but in comparison to In Cold Blood it was written much less in the manner described by The New Journalism than In Cold Blood was. It's been a few years since I read it, but as I recall the parts of the book I didn't like were those which moved away from The New Journalism approach. Perhaps Wolfe just got it wrong that once.

Finally, I think you are being mean with respect to your view of him as a novelist. He was outstanding.

In Cold Blood is the sh!t. Capote, very talented writer.

[Peter]

No. I thought it was yet another self-conscious attempt at 'THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL' and - like most such attempts - overblown, grandiose and with a positively chasmic discrepancy between reach and grasp.

Agreed. I didnt think much of it.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

It's hack work, h. Full of ciphers masquerading as characters and metaphors masquerading as plot. Go and read Tolstoy.

Mercy me, is this the bitter invective of envy? Are you a failed novelist b?

[Sir C]

Mercy me, is this the bitter invective of envy? Are you a failed novelist b?

Who isn't a failed novelist, h? I think we've all felt, at one time or another, as if we had a book within us, if only we could release it...

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

Who isn't a failed novelist, h? I think we've all felt, at one time or another, as if we had a book within us, if only we could release it...

A great many of the contributors to this board clearly have the gift of the mot juste , not least yourself and Berni, but I think it's rather like being able to crack out the intro to Layla on guitar but lacking the sheer stamina needed for the whole song. This succinctly describes my own axemanship

[Sir C]

A great many of the contributors to this board clearly have the gift of the mot juste , not least yourself and Berni, but I think it's rather like being able to crack out the intro to Layla on guitar but lacking the sheer stamina needed for the whole song. This succinctly describes my own axemanship

The further frustration, of course, is that even if one is capable of mastering the whole of Layla, Clapton's genius lay not in the playing of the song, but in the making of the song, a whole different level of endeavour again.

[Sir C]

A great many of the contributors to this board clearly have the gift of the mot juste , not least yourself and Berni, but I think it's rather like being able to crack out the intro to Layla on guitar but lacking the sheer stamina needed for the whole song. This succinctly describes my own axemanship

ty for the kind words, btw.

[Ash]

ty for the kind words, btw.

I'm sure you'll remember this next time you feel tempted to write something about jobbies.

[Herbert Augustus Chapman]

ty for the kind words, btw.

tell me c, your rather splendid line "A man needs no drug save a glass of good wine and a love of his country" - your own?

[Sir C]

tell me c, your rather splendid line "A man needs no drug save a glass of good wine and a love of his country" - your own?

I remember no such line, h. If it fell out of me one day, that is pleasing, but I am reminded of Lord Nelson's reported comment when offered a cloak on a dark, cold night on deck, "I have love of my country to keep me warm." So if I said it, I basically nicked it.