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Wolfe at the Door

Dec 31, 2012
by Caroline Miller
Back to Blood, Thomas Wolfe
2 Comments

If a cat can look at a king, then surely an unknown writer, such as myself, who is published by a press so small one needs a microscope to find it, may occasionally sneer at what passes for authors who write great novels. I refer specifically to Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Tom Wolfe, libidinous writers who objectify women and spend much of their literary lines drooling over the cracks – cleavage or butt – of a woman’s anatomy along with that hollowed territory too often described as “a triangle patch of pubic hair.”

 Forced to read the work of these men in college, I gave them up at the first possible moment and never returned… until recently. The November issue of Vanity Fair contained an excerpt from a new work by the 81-year-old Wolfe, Back to Blood. Thinking I should keep an open mind or that Wolfe may have grown wiser since the ’60s, I read the sample instead of flipping to the page that sported a profile of Stephen Colbert. Certainly, the topic of Wolfe’s new book was one that interested me: the cut throat behavior of the wealthy as they throw their money around at prestigious art fairs. I’d read a non-fiction book on the subject a year ago and found it fascinating. Why not see what Wolfe could do with the same subject under the trappings of fiction? Unfortunately, I wasn’t far into my reading when one of those cracks in his writing appeared:

She just wished she had worn a minidress, too, to show off her bare legs…as opposed to these slim white pants that mainly showed off the deep cleft of her perfect little bottom. (Excerpt from Back to Blood by Tom Wolfe, Vanity Fair, November 2012 p. 166.)

 As for the style, the structure approached gibberish:

…fuck off? You fuck off, you fat…

AhhgghHAHAHHHHHock hockhockhockedyou see that fat man trying to slip between those two people? Got stuck between themmmmaaagghHAHHHH gicj gicj gicj! Could’t get his big belly throughahhHock hock hock!” (Ibid pg. 167)

 As might be expected, James Wolcott, cultural critic for Vanity Fair, offers an apology for Wolfe in a sidebar to the excerpt. The author’s run-ons and tracking shot narrative, he explains, are akin to the works of Zola and Balzac and give the narrative its energy — as if energy were a substitute for communication. (Ibid, pg. 179) As to that, all I know is that in copying this “stuff,” for my blog, my spell check went bezerk, not unlike Wolfe’s writing. Had this sample come to me from a student in my Freshman 101 composition class, I would have advised him or her to major in origami. It too is full of holes.

Thomas Wolfe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Picture of Thomas Wolfe courtesy of eng10181.wordpress.com) 

 

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2 Comments
  1. J December 31, 2012 at 10:02 am Reply
    Dear Caroline, I have to agree, not having read the Latest but rather (not dan) the standard Wolfe callings in the 60's and 70's that his onomatopoetics these days are trying and trying to recapture something old rather than something new. Still, I give the older geezer some s lack (he created enough of it) and say perhaps "hey, I remember you, sort of ... you made me laugh. If you're not going to do it again and you mush publish, then leave me be where I left you - on the far side of Radical Chic. (And C. has anyone written that triangle line since Roth? Now it's all about Brazil and 50 Shades.) I too feel like a Freshman in your English class (I wish), so please be kind to an older hippie. Yours truly, Jim ps like your face - how are the books? Where?
    • Caroline Miller December 31, 2012 at 10:40 am Reply
      Dear Jim, I love old hippies, though I was too old to be one myself. Thank you for your comment. We both know time and history will be the true judges of Mr. Wolfe. What am I but a poor, wretched scribbler? As for the triangle, I'm afraid Saul Bellow suffered from that fascination also. I believe one reference may appear in "Seize the Day." but don't hold me too it. It's been years since I was in a Freshman English class. I love that you found me. I sometimes think I'm talking to myself or sending out notes in a bottle. Thank you for stopping by to assure me that is not entirely the case. My books, if you are curious, are three in number: "Heart Land," "Gothic Spring" and "Trompe l'Oeil" You can find reviews on my webpage: http:booksbycarolinemiller.com. I don't know if there is either art or matter in any of them, but there are no triangles.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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