The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
by Tom Wolfe

List Price: $17.00
Our Price: $7.98
You Save: $9.02 (53%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.73 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Book Reviews of The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby

Book Review: Insightful peak at the pre-sixties
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby

Now that everybody does what Wolfe did, his early essays smack less of genius. But attention must be paid to this pioneering peek into King Pop's tomb. The most startling thing is how soberly sensible most of the prose now appears, except for the title of the first essay, "Las Vegas (What?) Las Vegas (Can't Hear You! Too Noisy) Las Vegas!!!" which anticipates the far superior Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Mostly, these articles seem like straightforward introductions to some of the signal figures of the early '60s: hot-rod designer Big Daddy Roth, surf guitarist Dick Dale, teen recording tycoon Phil Spector, Andy Warhol debutante Baby Jane Holzer, the Cassius Clay-era Muhammad Ali. We even glimpse the Beatles in a profile of the yappy DJ Murray the K in "The Fifth Beatle."

The last half of the book focuses more on New York and its denizens' endless combat for social status. The last piece, "The Big League Complex," is like a 1964 warm-up exercise for The Bonfire of the Vanities. --Tim Appelo

Social Sciences Books

• Books > Subjects