by Tom Wolfe
Book of the week
There aren't many authors who can write convincingly about both corporate debt and crack dealing. But here comes the man in the white suit, Tom Wolfe, to take us on another insanely entertaining tour of the parallel universes that coexist—and bizarrely intersect—in any American city. This time it's Atlanta, not New York City, that provides a perfect setting for the author of 1987's The Bonfire of the Vanities to slam an exclamation point on the end of the American century. As before, he mischievously lines up his characters like a kid placing his Hot Wheels cars so they'll crash together with maximum impact: There's a good-ol'-boy real estate titan staving off bloodthirsty creditors, a black football star accused of date rape, a dandyish black lawyer, an irresistible working-class hero. All this merry stomping through the battlegrounds of race, sex, class and money will inspire the usual howls of protest, but every plot twist is utterly convincing (excepting a curious, late detour into the Stoic philosophy of ancient Greece). Wolfe is a peerless observer, a fearless satirist, a genius in full. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28.95)
Bottom Line: This Wolfe packs a punch
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