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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.10973
EAN: 9780312427566
ISBN: 0312427565
Label: Picador
Manufacturer: Picador
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: March 04, 2008
Publisher: Picador
Release Date: March 04, 2008
Sales Rank: 14627
Studio: Picador
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
From 'America’s nerviest journalist' (Newsweek)--a breath-taking epic, a magnificent adventure story, and an investigation into the true heroism and courage of the first Americans to conquer space. 'Tom Wolfe at his very best' (The New York Times Book Review)
Amazon.com Review:
Tom Wolfe began The Right Stuff at a time when it was unfashionableto contemplate American heroism. Nixon had left the White House indisgrace, the nation was reeling from the catastrophe of Vietnam, and in1979--the year the book appeared--Americans were being held hostage byIranian militants. Yet it was exactly the anachronistic courage of hissubjects that captivated Wolfe. In his foreword, he notes that as late as1970, almost one in four career Navy pilots died in accidents. 'TheRight Stuff,' he explains, 'became a story of why men werewilling--willing?--delighted!--to take on such odds in this, an eraliterary people had long since characterized as the age of the anti-hero.'
Wolfe's roots in New Journalism were intertwined with the nonfiction novelthat Truman Capote had pioneered with In Cold Blood. As Capotedid, Wolfe tells his story from a limited omniscient perspective, droppinginto the lives of his 'characters' as each in turn becomes a major playerin the space program. After an opening chapter on the terror of being atest pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americanswere first attempting to break the sound barrier. Test pilots, we discover,are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines, not all of themairborne. Chuck Yeager was certainly among the fastest, and hisdetermination to push through Mach 1--a feat that some had predicted wouldcause the destruction of any aircraft--makes him the book's guidingspirit.
Yet soon the focus shifts to the seven initial astronauts. Wolfe tracesAlan Shepard's suborbital flight and Gus Grissom's embarrassing panic onthe high seas (making the controversial claim that Grissom flooded hisLiberty capsule by blowing the escape hatch too soon). The author alsoproduces an admiring portrait of John Glenn's apple-pie heroism andselfless dedication. By the time Wolfe concludes with a return to Yeagerand his late-career exploits, the narrative's epic proportions and literarymerits are secure. Certainly The Right Stuff is the best, thefunniest, and the most vivid book ever written about America's manned space program. --Patrick O'Kelley
Customer Reviews Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Zeitgeist of 50s and 60s in Full
Having seen the movie before reading the book, I expected Wolfe's THE RIGHT STUFF to be good. I was surprised how good it turned out to be in capturing the mood of the America in the late 50s and early 60s. Character, admittedly topped off with a little self-promotion in zorder to rise up the military ladder, was king. Also pointed out by Wolfe is the Protestant underpinings of the seven golden boys. Backed by Presbyterian and TIME magazine czar, H. Luce, John Glenn (Presbyterian to the core) became ... Read More
Rating: - One of the finest books in the English language
The Right Stuff is essential readingfor any student of post-war western popular history whether or not you are interested in aviation and the space-race. Even if you dont hold with the concept of 'top three' books and the like, once you have read this, it will always come to mind when you are put on the spot and have to name your favourites.
Rating:  - Living on the outside of the envelope
In the years following WWII and Korea as the military graduated to fighter jets a certain hierarchy of talent developed.At the top of the pyramid were those in "flight test," where pilots with a certain indefinable something went to push the limits of the newest and most advanced jets.Landing several tons of metal atop a heaving and pitching aircraft carrier in the dark of night or "hanging your hide on the outside of the envelope" in experimental jets is a dangerous profession requiring what Mr. ... Read More
Rating: - Dawn's Early Light
Bang! Zoom! Pow!
If you like prose that crackles like sparklers in your eyes, and tells a good story besides, then Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff", about the Mercury 7 spaceflight program of the early 1960s, is for you.
Published in 1979, back when the U.S. was the world's laughing stock and "malaise" was the operative word from the White House, "The Right Stuff" calls to mind with equal degrees of snark and awe a time when real heroes walked the earth and flew beyond and around ... Read More
Rating: - excellent read
As a 'random' book to pick up and read, I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of information provided in this book.I also enjoyed the writing style.Excellent excellent, must-read book!
The Right Stuff |
