Greatest American novelist of the past fifty years.

Greatest American novelist of the past fifty years.

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  1. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    zesty

  2. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    his novels are shit; grand theft auto-tier writing

    his nonfiction is great (Bauhaus to Our House, Painted Word, Hooking Up, Kingdom of Speech)

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      How is The Right Stuff?

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        Great

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        Right Stuff is alright, pretty forgettable. I like Electric Kool-Aid Test more. However both are complete fiction; American mythology. Astronauts and the Hippie culture are both psy-ops. Wolf makes up a lot of bullshit for Right Stuff. Like, how the astronauts would all drive around drunk at top speeds. It's just stuff to give boomers a false perception of who their heroes were. You might as well watch First Man by Damien Chazelle, a film that portrays the astronauts as being nagged by their c**t wives. Astronaut media = boomer ball busting.

        ?t=63

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          >astronauts drunk driving
          the point of this is to tempt gullible people into injuring themselves. They are making fun of anyone who buys their phony astronaut mythology

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          What the frick are you talking about

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Back to Blood was the most enjoyable novel I've read in the past couple of years.

  3. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    Saul Bellow

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      50 years is 1973, all the good Bellow novels are older

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        fair point I counted from his death

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Herzog is a steaming pile of crap.

  4. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    /fa/, please.

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Gore Vidal took it up the ass. he was gay. Why would you take anything he says seriously?

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        Every man worth reading was.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        >I have imagined him doing anal sex. Therefore I cannot trust anything he says!
        You are a strange little degenerate.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        Vidal was a notorious top and basically bisexual.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        Vidal hated transgenders and woman like gays. Myra Breckinridge is a satire of them.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        He was a top exclusively, tho

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          They all gays, son

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          Vidal hated transgenders and woman like gays. Myra Breckinridge is a satire of them.

          Vidal was a notorious top and basically bisexual.

          >I have imagined him doing anal sex. Therefore I cannot trust anything he says!
          You are a strange little degenerate.

          Every man worth reading was.

          That's fricking CRAZY the amount of pro-gay people on this site God damn. Anyone who participates in gay butt sex is so utterly lost mentally that their opinions should be outright discarded. Moments like this really solidify the fact that all the "based" talk on here is sarcastic. You do understand that all that gay shit you do in secret societies isn't to "enlighten" it's to make you a functional eunuch so you serve no threat to anyone.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Anon, you are already a functional eunuch that poses no threat to anyone. Is it because of the gay sex (which explains your insight), or due to other reasons?

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Why do you think gay sex is ok?

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            The amount of literate homosexuals far exceeds the amount of literate chuds, like yourself.
            And I’ll let you in on a little not-really-secret. Most homosexuals don’t do anal sex as often as you fantasize about it. Some none at all. Vidal especially. He and his partner apparently didn’t have sex. Author’s sexlives have little to nothing to do with their work. Stop laser focusing in on people’s anus. You come off as a bit of a homosexual.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            He never bottomed, so no, he was not gay.

            You are clearly a fricking gay in self-denial lmao

            >CAPTCHA: SKKKJ

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            >thinks anonymous’ sex life absolves him of his professing to excessive homosexual fantasies

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Even the way you type is gaygier than Sam Smith.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Who's Sam Smith? One of your gay authors? You know what ass's he's pounding, do you?

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Yea, you're definitely a self-hating homosexual lol

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            >self hating homosexual who likes Gore Vidal
            Your guesses are pretty amusing. Do you believe them? Do you think they bother me?

            listen you queer

            Hah

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            literally who cares about someone sexuality when his works were top notch

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        He never bottomed, so no, he was not gay.

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          oh look it's the same guy who always comments "take meds" I was almost missing you for a second there

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      listen you queer

  5. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    Was Wolfe the last American whose literally novel publications were cultural events? Maybe Pynchon, Franzen, DFW or BEE, but they didn’t have nearly the same impact/penetration.

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Was going to say Roth, now realise they died within days of each other
      Rushdie is the only celebrity novelist left, like a Mailer or a Wolfe. And it's not really because of his books

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      McCarthy, quite easily. I would say he had a bigger impact than Wolfe whenever he was to release a book.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        It's not even close the other way.

        >As of 1991, none of McCarthy's novels had sold more than 5,000 hardcover copies, and "for most of his career, he did not even have an agent". He was labelled the "best unknown novelist in America".

        >Because of the success of Wolfe's first novel, there was widespread interest in his second. This novel took him more than 11 years to complete; A Man in Full was published in 1998. The book's reception was not universally favorable, though it received glowing reviews in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. An initial printing of 1.2 million copies was announced and the book stayed at number one on The New York Times' bestseller list for ten weeks.

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          History didn't stop in 1991. He has done equal or better numbers since and I would easily bet that he has more cultural recognition today than Tom Wolfe ever had.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            you probably were too young or not alive in the 60's through 90's to understand how famous Tom Wolfe was.
            He was probably the most famous journalist in America along with Hunter Thompson and had his books turn into number one sellers almost immediately, along with constantly being interviewed on television and radio. Cormac is certainly the most American famous author nowadays, and has been since the mid 2000's, but they both certainly had about the same level of fame at their peaks.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Did you live through the 60s? Yeah I wasn't alive back then, but seems really unbelievable that he went from such a cultural force to being sporadically mentioned in public consciousness. Happens to all but was really more popular then Vidal or Mailer? They have adjusted better to the new reading public at least.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            I'm old. He was more famous as a journalist/essay writer than as a strict novelist. If that interests you, look up New Journalism on wiki. It's still very influential to journalists today.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            >More popular than Vidal or Mailer?
            Yes. Sales will attest to that. Meanwhile their names have endured longer, such as Melville being s recognizable figure today despite being a complete nobody during his own era. Will DFW/Franzen/McCarthy/Pynchon be talked about 100 years from now? Maybe. Will Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson? Probably not, even if they are way more recognizable to the general public.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Literally everything about American culture from the 60's to the 80's was created by the CIA. There's a reason those books turned "into number one best sellers immediately" and there's a reason he was given so much air time by TV networks, radio stations, and other journalists.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            um actually sweatie its because Tom Wolfe started the new journalism movement and got famous in the 1960's by insulting the New Yorker magazine for being pretentious and middlebrow

            Not that you're entirely wrong, the Paris Review took CIA money, for example

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        You won't get an argument from me about who is the better novelist, but Wolfe's status is almost unthinkable today.
        I'm oldgay enough to remember the movie of Bonfire of The Vanities. Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith at the peak of their careers.
        Griffiths was where Jennifer Lawrence is now.
        And yet it was as much a Tom Wolfe movie as it was theirs. The only comparable thing I can think of is Eyes Wide Shut when Kubrick was top billing along with Cruise and Kidman.

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          Movie could be better

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          You ever see that interview where the interviewer asks Trump if he reads and Trump says he read “Tom Wolfe’s new novel” but can’t recall anything about it? It’s funny not only because he obviously is lying but because it speaks to that celebrity you’re talking about.

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      McCarthy, quite easily. I would say he had a bigger impact than Wolfe whenever he was to release a book.

      It's not even close the other way.

      >As of 1991, none of McCarthy's novels had sold more than 5,000 hardcover copies, and "for most of his career, he did not even have an agent". He was labelled the "best unknown novelist in America".

      >Because of the success of Wolfe's first novel, there was widespread interest in his second. This novel took him more than 11 years to complete; A Man in Full was published in 1998. The book's reception was not universally favorable, though it received glowing reviews in Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. An initial printing of 1.2 million copies was announced and the book stayed at number one on The New York Times' bestseller list for ten weeks.

      You won't get an argument from me about who is the better novelist, but Wolfe's status is almost unthinkable today.
      I'm oldgay enough to remember the movie of Bonfire of The Vanities. Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith at the peak of their careers.
      Griffiths was where Jennifer Lawrence is now.
      And yet it was as much a Tom Wolfe movie as it was theirs. The only comparable thing I can think of is Eyes Wide Shut when Kubrick was top billing along with Cruise and Kidman.

      Kek, this whole time I thought you were talking about my man Gene.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        bump

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Murakami in Asia. Cormac McCarthy everywhere else.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        Publicity wise, McCarthy never held a candle to Wolfe.

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          Why do people on this board this McCarthy is a big deal? He’s less substantial than Pynchon even

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            McCarthy and Pynchon are pretty much the main two American writers. People here also like Pynchon. Gravity's Rainbow and Lot get meme'd a lot

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            >McCarthy and Pynchon are pretty much the main two American writers.
            Alive. This is very condemning of American literature. The absolute state.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            I mean, writing is a dying form. There's not many true artistes left in any language. Houllebecq sure, Murakami, Marías... then who? Zadie Smith? LOL

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Vincent Gallo

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            >Marías

            I think he's dead

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Nobody has given a frick about pynchons since atleast the 80s. Franzen is much better recognized than him today.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Are you moronic, newbie? Literally the most popular literary writer in the anglosphere.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Not remotely

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Stop living in your fantasy world.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Cope

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Stfu. You are the one coping.

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Yikes

          • 10 months ago
            Anonymous

            Yikes to you, butthurt troony.

        • 10 months ago
          Anonymous

          He has sold as well and seems in a better position for posterity.

  6. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    Journalists don’t write great fiction.

  7. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    >Bonfire of The Vanities
    A masterpiece

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Typical israelite York Times artificial hype. Same as that gay novel Tom Hanks adapted about all those gays. Really makes you think.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        I read it in my late teens and I simply loved it. There were some different story arcs but the one with the "Masters of the Universe" definitely made an impression on me. I could barely wrap my teenage mind around these aliens (Ivy League yuppies) living in a parallel universe (NYC, Wall Street). I distinctly remember a passage that if you were stupid enough not to be a multi millionaire by the age of 30, you were an abject failure. A masterpiece.

      • 10 months ago
        Anonymous

        Bonfire pushed to boundaries of how openly anti-semitic a high society Wasp in the 80s could be. As a New York City Wasp who remembers the 80s, the book perfectly captures the esprit du temps.

  8. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    Tom wolfe was a genius. The Pump House Gang in particular is one of the best books ever written about American society. The pieces on Hugh Hefner and Marshall McLuhan in particular were WAY ahead of their time.

    archive.org has a free copy if I remember correctly

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Damn, need to read that

  9. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    I am Charlotte Simons is absolute dogshit, that homie ain't even in the top 10

  10. 10 months ago
    cracka

    "Greatest American novelist" that's not a thing lmao

  11. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    I only read the painted word.

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      Also great.

  12. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    downright peculiar

  13. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    not even the writer with that name

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      He wasn’t alive fifty years ago, and the writer in OP goes by Tom — not Thomas

  14. 10 months ago
    Anonymous

    What are the Tom Wolfe power rankings?
    >man in full
    >bonfire of vanities
    >back in blood
    >Charlotte Simmons

    I think back in Blood is underrated

    • 10 months ago
      Anonymous

      1. Bonfire of the Vanities
      2. Pump House Gang
      3.The Right Stuff
      4. Charlotte Simmons
      5. Hooking Up
      every book of his is good though

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