The subject itself gives this book a lot of appeal- who doesn't want to read about fighter jocks of old battling and beating government bureaucracy? It makes one long for the days when a man could still drink a six pack of beer, put on his aviators, wink knowingly to his superior and climb competently into millions of dollars of bleeding edge government property. It's a special sort of recklessness that is easy to feel nostalgic for, the same sort of thing that we used to feel when we watched westerns. Or space operas. Wait, I'm losing it here- better make a drink. Hold on, Goodreads community! Mmmmm, okay, well that's much better. The dryness of the palette was seeping into my brain- a brazen act of defiance against everything gravity has to say about anything. And I am nothing, if not a staunch ally of gravity- trust me. Or, you know, don't trust me. Your freedom trumps my passion for gravity any day of the week. And in case you're wondering, I've mixed myself a screwdriver. It seemed the sensible choice. Too early for whiskey and I am already bloated with ridiculously hoppy beer. So it has gotta be clear spirits till the sun goes down for this guy. And that, Dear Reader, is when when I review Ulysses. But where were we in all this? Oh yes, The Right Stuff. There's a point to this thing. Old Mr. Wolfe does a fine job of putting the reader into the perspective of all the humans involved...except he never seems to be able to slow down! I have a feeling Farrar Straus Giroux locked him in a penthouse suite in upper Manhattan with only a case of cognac, a mound of cocaine and a week to get the writing done...though this scenario is certainly NOT betrayed by the author's jacket sleeve photograph. Hell, maybe Mr. Wolfe had/has supreme powers, the kind that keeps a man together and downright dapper after a week of blow, whiskey and sleeplessness! If so, this tremendous feat is something in itself to be admired. Our Author, the much esteemed Tom Wolfe also, categorically, had and undoubtedly still has, The Right Stuff. So yes, our fighter pilots keep an even flow, and Wolfe is coked to the gills in New York City, jibber-jabbering at an obscene cranial voltage, just getting it down, all of it, on paper-it must be on paper!- and we have a lovely, marked contrast in what it takes to be an astronaut and what it took and probably still takes to be a journalist. And somehow, someway, between the author and his subject, there is an agreement in temperament, if not in method.And of course, may I remind you, this is all just bullshit. My drink is empty, so it might be just the right time to get into some Walter Benjamin. I'll be reviewing it in the year 2024.
This would have been a superb book but for Wolfe's puzzling decision to libel astronaut Gus Grissom. Sadly, between the book and its movie adaptation, Wolfe's distortions are probably all that most people know about Grissom (assuming of course that they remember any astronaut other than Neil Armstrong in the first place).Grissom was one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, and the second to go into space. After his capsule splashed down, its hatch blew before the recovery helicopter arrived and the spacecraft sank, marring a near-flawless mission. No one was able to determine the cause of the incident (even after the capsule was recovered from the ocean floor thirty years later) but the universal consensus among NASA's engineers and astronauts was that mechanical failure couldn't be ruled out, and that Grissom deserved the benefit of the doubt.For some reason, Wolfe decided that Grissom, despite having been a combat veteran and despite the fact that the most dangerous stages of the mission (launch and re-entry) were behind him, had panicked and blown the hatch himself. He also insinuates that the souvenirs Grissom had brought along (a few rolls of coins and some keychain-sized models of the capsule) had somehow contributed to Grissom's nearly drowning (in fact air had been escaping from a valve -- that he admitted he had forgotten to close -- reducing his buoyancy). Wolfe cynically adds that NASA covered up Grissom's blunders in the interest of protecting its public image.In reality, there's no evidence for Wolfe's position. Even the curmudgeonly Flight Director Chris Kraft, whose autobiography shows no reluctance to tear into other astronauts, has steadfastly maintained that Grissom wasn't at fault. The clearest evidence of Grissom's blamelessness is the fact that he was chosen to command the first Gemini mission and the first manned Apollo mission. If NASA's administration had believed that Grissom was incompetent, there would have been no need for them to make any embarrassing public admissions; they could have asked him to resign "for personal reasons," or they could have kept him on salary while simply not assigning him to any new missions.A lesser flaw with the book is that Wolfe presents his opinions as facts, regarding the meaning of "the right stuff," and the meaning of the public's adoration of the Mercury Seven, but these flaws are easier to overlook. And having said all that, this is an otherwise compelling look at the early days of manned space exploration, at the glory days of Edwards Air Force Base, and at the test pilots who first broke the sound barrier and went on to fly rocket planes to the edge of space.
What do You think about The Right Stuff (2001)?
To paraphrase another reviewer, I feel like I gained something by reading this book, but the process was....well, not the most enjoyable reading experience I've ever had. It's great and interesting information and would be excellent if I were a fan of Tom Wolfe's idiosyncratic writing style, but I am emphatically not. Too! Many! Exclamation points! for one thing--and when he comes up with a phrase that he thinks is especially clever, he uses it at least once on every single page of the book. I could also do without the infantilizing of the astronauts' wives, and occasionally the astronauts themselves. But the subject matter is really interesting and Wolfe is definitely a very evocative writer. When he described Alan Shepard's first flight, I felt like I was right there in the capsule with him (and it was terrifying). If you can get past the extreme Tome Wolfe-ness of the book, I'd recommend it for sure.
—Amanda R
Oh my God, I loved this book. It's so gigantic and so about the manliness of pilots that at first I didn't think I would be able to finish, especially because I shy away from nonfiction. But it was MAGNIFICENT! I couldn't put it down. I've ignored my children, the Olympics, important deadlines, all because I couldn't stop reading about the rockets. I haven't read a book in a long time that I just could not stand to put down, and I felt like I had to pry this book from my exhausted fingers late at night because I couldn't wait to pick it up again in the morning. It says in the back of the book that Tom Wolfe intended to write the entire chronicle of the space program, but he reached some outrageous amount of pages and had only covered the Mercury program, so he just stopped it right there. I so wish he would continue. I don't even feel like Mercury is the best part.I did come away with one negative, and that is how disillusioning the book was about the astronauts. I apparently bought in hook, line, and sinker to the noble image the government, the press, and NASA let develop around the astronauts, and it was a little hard to have that notion dispelled. It was only recently I learned that many astronauts were pilots and chosen for their flight skills, and not scientists or engineers picked on a completely different set of merits. This book could've been a real eye-opener if I'd read it a year earlier. I kind of preferred the mental image of the rockets filled with brave, nerdy men than cocky fighter pilots, but I guess it was the way it was. I love the way Tom Wolfe writes, especially in this book. I feel like he writes the way I think, and I can hear everything so clearly in my mind when I read his books. His use of exclamation points and italics is awesome.
—Bookslut
Way back in 1979, Tom Wolfe packaged together an exciting story about the initial fleeting moments of the space race, as well as a delightful sense of humor, within the two covers of a non-fiction book. But don’t let the narrative’s 33 year-old publishing fool you. The Right Stuff aged well, managing in this recent read to deliver relevant and insightful commentary about an intensely fascinating historical period amidst the Cold War. From Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert of southern California to the new space centers at Cape Canaveral and Houston, this story is packed full of colorful topics, including early spaceflights, astronaut rivalries and astronaut wives, the end of the golden age of flight, and the author’s chosen super-pilot, Chuck Yeager.Much of the work’s magic comes from the wondrous way in which Wolfe blended teaching and entertaining. He delved into the concept of the “righteous stuff,” perhaps understood to be cool bravery, which the author suggested separated the best pilots from everyone else. He studied the subculture among these men and the mass hysteria, driven by fears of Soviet Communist space supremacy, which surrounded these original seven astronauts. It’s as much an examination of American culture as a history book. But throughout, the pace never slows, the read never grows dull, and the text’s amusing wit and charm never fails.Among other fun techniques, Wolfe employed a unique stylistic repetition of his favorite words and key phrases. Page after page sees reference to the “single combat warrior,” “flying and drinking and drinking and driving,” “our rockets always blow up,” “wipe away a tear,” “the mighty [Soviet] Integral,” move “up the ziggurat,” “the little Indians,” “West Virginia drawl,” and of course “the right stuff.” This curious practice bolstered his commentary while often acting the part of a fun delivery device for humor and amusement in a non-fiction book.For the first time in memory, I don’t have a single negative comment or complaint to make about a book. Though writing literary criticism may be as important as delving out acclaim, this read left me feeling a rare sense of awe for the author. As a history fan, I’ve never encountered a non-fiction work as much fun as this and can’t find the right stuff to do it justice now. Additionally, if you haven’t seen it, there is a great movie made in the early 1980s, bearing the same name and closely adapted from this incredible book.
—Josh
