Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Picador (2008), Edition: Second Edition, Revised, 352 pages
Description
A narrative of the early days of the U.S. space program and the people who made it happen, including Chuck Yeager, Pete Conrad, Gus Grissom, and John Glenn.
User reviews
LibraryThing member delphica
(#50 in the 2008 Book Challenge)
Good GRIEF, somebody please remind me about this the next time I think I will read a Tom Wolfe book. I seem to read one about every 15 years and in between I forget what an unpleasant experience I find it. I cannot! Take! The exclamation points! I'm one of those
Grade: I don't even know.
Recommended: This is one of those books where I feel like I gained something in the end, but the process of getting there was almost unbearable.
Good GRIEF, somebody please remind me about this the next time I think I will read a Tom Wolfe book. I seem to read one about every 15 years and in between I forget what an unpleasant experience I find it. I cannot! Take! The exclamation points! I'm one of those
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people who, constitutionally, cannot ignore an exclamation point on the printed page, so reading this was like being shouted at for great lengths of time. As everyone in the free world already knows, this is Tom Wolfe's book about the Mercury Space program, focusing on the personalities of the test pilots and the social significance of beating the Russians into space, or you know, failing to do that. I'm sure I've seen the movie countless times, mostly in parts on cable, but I had never read the book and that didn't seem right. I'm not even sure it seems right now, either, but I will say that for a book that I found almost painful to read, I have absolutely no doubt it informs just about every image we have of the space race and NASA in popular culture. So that part is impressive.Grade: I don't even know.
Recommended: This is one of those books where I feel like I gained something in the end, but the process of getting there was almost unbearable.
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
You might have seen the film based on this book, which I loved, but I think I loved the book--a very different creature--even more. I should say up front I'm a big fan of space exploration, the kind of person who has read a bookshelf worth of stuff by and about astronauts, flight controllers, the
Tom Wolfe is not just a great journalist, but a fine novelist (Bonfire of the Vanities) and it shows in this. The book has a literary style, and uses techniques that in lesser hands might cause me to think "pretentious hack." Paragraphs that go on forever, staccato sentences interspersed with long, long run on sentences, repeated phrases such as "ziggurat," and yes, "the Right Stuff." There's even passages, especially one at the end about Chuck Yeager, that use the stream of consciousness technique. These are the sorts of things that in reviews often bring out rants from me, but here works. For one, it's a very readable style--in fact a blast to read. He conveyed scientific and technical niceties and did so lucidly but never tediously. There's a rhythm to his prose, it's conversational in tone, not what I'd call folksy exactly, but breezy, at times gossipy and with plenty of humor. Here's a paragraph that encapsulates a lot of Wolfe's subject and style:
As to just what this ineffable quality was... well, it obviously involved bravery. But it was not bravery in the simple sense of being willing to risk your life. The idea seemed to be that any fool could do that, if that was all that was required, just as any fool could throw away his life in the process. No, the idea here (in the all-enclosing fraternity) seemed to be that a man should have the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness, to pull it back in the last yawning moment—and then go up again the next day, and the next day, and every next day, even if the series should prove infinite—and, ultimately, in its best expression, do so in a cause that means something to thousands, to a people, a nation, to humanity, to God. Nor was there a test to show whether or not a pilot had this righteous quality. There was, instead, a seemingly infinite series of tests. A career in flying was like climbing one of those ancient Babylonian pyramid made up of a dizzy progression of steps and ledges, a ziggurat, a pyramid extraordinarily high and steep; and the idea was to prove at every food of the way up that pyramid that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff and could move higher and higher and even—ultimately, God willing, one day—that you might be able to join that special few at the very top, that elite who had the capacity to bring tears to men’s eyes, the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself.
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engineers and builders of space craft. So you might say I was predisposed to like a book on the seven Mercury astronauts--the first Americans to go into space. On the other hand, as someone who has read voraciously on this subject, it also means a lot that I'd put this particular book at the top of the class. Tom Wolfe is not just a great journalist, but a fine novelist (Bonfire of the Vanities) and it shows in this. The book has a literary style, and uses techniques that in lesser hands might cause me to think "pretentious hack." Paragraphs that go on forever, staccato sentences interspersed with long, long run on sentences, repeated phrases such as "ziggurat," and yes, "the Right Stuff." There's even passages, especially one at the end about Chuck Yeager, that use the stream of consciousness technique. These are the sorts of things that in reviews often bring out rants from me, but here works. For one, it's a very readable style--in fact a blast to read. He conveyed scientific and technical niceties and did so lucidly but never tediously. There's a rhythm to his prose, it's conversational in tone, not what I'd call folksy exactly, but breezy, at times gossipy and with plenty of humor. Here's a paragraph that encapsulates a lot of Wolfe's subject and style:
As to just what this ineffable quality was... well, it obviously involved bravery. But it was not bravery in the simple sense of being willing to risk your life. The idea seemed to be that any fool could do that, if that was all that was required, just as any fool could throw away his life in the process. No, the idea here (in the all-enclosing fraternity) seemed to be that a man should have the ability to go up in a hurtling piece of machinery and put his hide on the line and then have the moxie, the reflexes, the experience, the coolness, to pull it back in the last yawning moment—and then go up again the next day, and the next day, and every next day, even if the series should prove infinite—and, ultimately, in its best expression, do so in a cause that means something to thousands, to a people, a nation, to humanity, to God. Nor was there a test to show whether or not a pilot had this righteous quality. There was, instead, a seemingly infinite series of tests. A career in flying was like climbing one of those ancient Babylonian pyramid made up of a dizzy progression of steps and ledges, a ziggurat, a pyramid extraordinarily high and steep; and the idea was to prove at every food of the way up that pyramid that you were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff and could move higher and higher and even—ultimately, God willing, one day—that you might be able to join that special few at the very top, that elite who had the capacity to bring tears to men’s eyes, the very Brotherhood of the Right Stuff itself.
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LibraryThing member DarthDeverell
Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book, The Right Stuff, chronicles the diverging research of high-altitude rocket planes and spaceflight from the early 1950s through Project Mercury, contrasting the Mercury Seven astronauts with test pilots at Edwards AFB and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, with Chuck Yeager
The style and success of Wolfe’s book ensured its adaptation and Hollywood has done so twice, first in Philip Kaufman’s 1983 film and again in the 2020 television series from National Geographic. This Vintage Classics copy is a nice paperback edition with a great pop-art cover and an introduction from Astronaut Scott Kelly that helps to capture of the legacy of The Right Stuff. Something appears to have gone wrong during the formatting process, however, as there are several typographical errors throughout the book (extraneous letters jumbled in the middle of words, words divided by a hyphen as if they were meant to be split between two lines, and multiple instances of the number 1 in place of an “l” or an “I”). These occur often enough to be noticeable, but thankfully Wolfe’s narrative is engrossing and makes up for it.
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standing out as exemplifying the “right stuff” even though he was not chosen for the space program. Wolfe writes in a somewhat conversational style, working to capture the mentality of test pilots of that era and how it defined what it meant to be a pilot for generations to come, much as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and others did for pilots of the early twentieth century. Wolfe further evokes the heady emotion of the days of Mercury, when the immediacy of the Cold War turned the Space Race into a battlefront of sorts and the astronauts into Single Combat Warriors to whom the public paid homage. However, Wolfe points out that the test pilots at Edwards were skeptical of the space program, particularly as those running it initially conceived of the pilot as little more than a passenger in a capsule. Meanwhile, the test pilots in the high desert were flying rocket planes to altitudes that required the same skills as a spacecraft, such as control of attitude jets since the air was too thin – or nonexistent – for the plane’s control surfaces to work as the plane had crossed the boundary into space. Despite these achievements, the astronauts captured the public’s imagination and eventually succeeded in using their public positions to regain some of their status as pilots, though the heady days of Mercury did not last into the Gemini and Apollo programs, where spaceflight became more routine as astronauts were longer regaled as Single Combat Warriors.The style and success of Wolfe’s book ensured its adaptation and Hollywood has done so twice, first in Philip Kaufman’s 1983 film and again in the 2020 television series from National Geographic. This Vintage Classics copy is a nice paperback edition with a great pop-art cover and an introduction from Astronaut Scott Kelly that helps to capture of the legacy of The Right Stuff. Something appears to have gone wrong during the formatting process, however, as there are several typographical errors throughout the book (extraneous letters jumbled in the middle of words, words divided by a hyphen as if they were meant to be split between two lines, and multiple instances of the number 1 in place of an “l” or an “I”). These occur often enough to be noticeable, but thankfully Wolfe’s narrative is engrossing and makes up for it.
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LibraryThing member RobertDay
The story of the first seven American astronauts, compared and contrasted with the life of Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier. But this is far more than just a biography of names, dates and places. Wolfe delved deep into what it meant to be a Test Pilot in the years after the
All this is reflected back on the way these pilots were lauded by politicians, businessmen, the media and the American public. This adds a further dimension to the book, making it into a social history of the 1950s and 60s seen through the prism of the space programme.
Wolfe develops his theory that the top pilots had a particular mindset, the "Right Stuff" of the title. If you have to ask what the "Right Stuff" is, especially by the time you've read this book, then you are irretrievably blind to it, and you certainly don't possess it yourself. Wolfe identifies it, using the language of the time, as comprising in part of "manly virtues", though this phrase is italicised so often that I could not help but think that his tongue was firmly stuck in his cheek when he wrote it.
The 1983 film captures the book extremely well, though there is so much more in the book that the film couldn't pin down. For example, Glenn's wife Annie was (sympathetically) portrayed in the film as a somewhat shy and retiring character on account of her stammer; the film's depiction of her husband's tender relationship with her is a key part of its character portrait of John Glenn. But the book makes the point that Annie Glenn was neither shy nor retiring, coming as she did from "good pioneer stock", quite capable of holding her own in life and only quailing before a media onslaught that would roll over most people.
The book also returns often to the Air Force manned X-15 spaceplane project and its planned successors. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, whilst American administrations focussed on rocketry, the achievements of the X-15 pilots, in flying to the edge of space and beyond were broadly ignored. Yet the X-15 programme would eventually produce the first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.
I can only fault the book on one error of fact; when talking about the Soviet Vostok vessels, Wolfe translates the Russian word 'Korabl' as 'Cosmic', when in fact it means 'ship'. Quite what the NASA astronauts would have thought, when they were pressing for changes to the Mercury capsule and the mission profiles to give them much more of the role of pilots rather than just payload, to know that the Russians were referring to their rocket as a "ship" from the outset will most likely remain lost.
The writing is resolutely Sixties, both in phrase and usage; but it is a fine piece of writing nonetheless and thoroughly deserves the accolades it received at the time of publication.
(Having said that, I'm sad to say that my copy, a film tie-in Bantam A-format paperback printed in the UK in 1983, is probably one of the nastiest books I've handled in recent years. Pulpy paper, a cover that displays edge and corner wear as soon as I picked it up, and excessively narrow margins and big blocks of text made worse by the displacement of the text towards the bottom of the page, resulting in almost no bottom margin, made the actual reading of this book an unpleasant experience. Fortunately, the content more than made up for this.)
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Second World War; how these men thought, and talked, and lived (and sometimes died). He also brings the whole story of the pilots' families into focus; what it meant to be married to a test pilot and how it affected the wives, especially in times when male and female roles were far more stratified than they are now. If this book had been written in the 1930s or 1940s, it would have been science fiction; but it goes far beyond any goshwow pulp melodrama.All this is reflected back on the way these pilots were lauded by politicians, businessmen, the media and the American public. This adds a further dimension to the book, making it into a social history of the 1950s and 60s seen through the prism of the space programme.
Wolfe develops his theory that the top pilots had a particular mindset, the "Right Stuff" of the title. If you have to ask what the "Right Stuff" is, especially by the time you've read this book, then you are irretrievably blind to it, and you certainly don't possess it yourself. Wolfe identifies it, using the language of the time, as comprising in part of "manly virtues", though this phrase is italicised so often that I could not help but think that his tongue was firmly stuck in his cheek when he wrote it.
The 1983 film captures the book extremely well, though there is so much more in the book that the film couldn't pin down. For example, Glenn's wife Annie was (sympathetically) portrayed in the film as a somewhat shy and retiring character on account of her stammer; the film's depiction of her husband's tender relationship with her is a key part of its character portrait of John Glenn. But the book makes the point that Annie Glenn was neither shy nor retiring, coming as she did from "good pioneer stock", quite capable of holding her own in life and only quailing before a media onslaught that would roll over most people.
The book also returns often to the Air Force manned X-15 spaceplane project and its planned successors. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, whilst American administrations focussed on rocketry, the achievements of the X-15 pilots, in flying to the edge of space and beyond were broadly ignored. Yet the X-15 programme would eventually produce the first man to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.
I can only fault the book on one error of fact; when talking about the Soviet Vostok vessels, Wolfe translates the Russian word 'Korabl' as 'Cosmic', when in fact it means 'ship'. Quite what the NASA astronauts would have thought, when they were pressing for changes to the Mercury capsule and the mission profiles to give them much more of the role of pilots rather than just payload, to know that the Russians were referring to their rocket as a "ship" from the outset will most likely remain lost.
The writing is resolutely Sixties, both in phrase and usage; but it is a fine piece of writing nonetheless and thoroughly deserves the accolades it received at the time of publication.
(Having said that, I'm sad to say that my copy, a film tie-in Bantam A-format paperback printed in the UK in 1983, is probably one of the nastiest books I've handled in recent years. Pulpy paper, a cover that displays edge and corner wear as soon as I picked it up, and excessively narrow margins and big blocks of text made worse by the displacement of the text towards the bottom of the page, resulting in almost no bottom margin, made the actual reading of this book an unpleasant experience. Fortunately, the content more than made up for this.)
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LibraryThing member hugh_ashton
Re-read for the n-th time. I like Tom Wolfe - his mannerisms grate at times, but the sheer exuberance of his writing carries you over the gaps, and he has an ear for a phrase. He keeps himself well out of this book, unlike some of his other writing (Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby),
Some of what Wolfe writes about the Mercury project doesn't tally with some of the other sources I've read, but I think it probably comes closer to capturing the spirit of the twentieth century Single-Combat Warrior corps than any technical history. If you've only seen the movie, read the book – it's better.
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so it's not really HST-gonzo journalism, but it comes close at times. What I really admire about him is his ability to dive into a topic and write about it as an expert (Michael Lewis can do this too, but I don't think HST could do this except for subjects that he could immediately identify with on some level, such as Hell's Angels or Richard Nixon).Some of what Wolfe writes about the Mercury project doesn't tally with some of the other sources I've read, but I think it probably comes closer to capturing the spirit of the twentieth century Single-Combat Warrior corps than any technical history. If you've only seen the movie, read the book – it's better.
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LibraryThing member GBev2008
A riveting look inside the world of the early test pilots and the highly lauded Mercury 7; the United States' first astronauts who became national heroes as the face of the race against the Soviets.
These days a space shot is hardly acknowledged, but in the early days each launch was a national
These days a space shot is hardly acknowledged, but in the early days each launch was a national
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event. "The Right Stuff" provides a great look inside the pilots' lives and gives a great idea of how things felt to the nation and the astronauts. Show Less
LibraryThing member Othemts
The Right Stuff is one of my all-time favorite movies, and after watching it dozens of times I finally read the book. As books tend to be, it was a lot more in-depth exploring the history of space flight from the test pilots attempting to break the sound barrier in the 1940's through the end of the
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Mercury program in the 1960's. Full of stories, facts, and connections this book is also written in an engaging style. A must of anyone interested in the space program or 20th-Century History. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
The Right Stuff was published in 1979, or only about 20 years from the events it describes. We are now about 35 years from the book so it's beginning to age and it's possible to consider how time has treated it. My assessment is it's a classic of the first order that will be read for generations,
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and has influenced the whole space book genre. Wolfe captures not only the Mercury Project and test pilots, but American culture ca. 1955-1962. It's worth noting Wolfe has a PhD from Yale in "American Studies" (1951), he is a professionally trained observer of culture. Not that it's academic, Wolfe is smart and entertaining southern raconteur. It does seem a little dated because of a subtle Freudian perspective now out of style; however even that gives it a greater historical fidelity, and underscores how good a storyteller Freud was. Show Less
LibraryThing member cataylor
Another oldie, but goodie. If you've never read this fascinating account of the early space program, you're in for a treat. Chock full of anecdotal tidbits about the different astronauts and pilots lives; it reads like a gossip column of the early 1960s.
LibraryThing member SimoneSimone
Tom outdid himself here. Must have been the subject.. Great movie too.
LibraryThing member fuzzi
Author Tom Wolfe has done something that I did not expect when I started reading "The Right Stuff", his book about the first astronauts and the Mercury program. He did not just write a history of the early days of the race to space, pre-NASA, nor did he just write an expose of the personal details
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of those involved in that program. No, Tom Wolfe wrote a factual and funny commentary on test pilots, the military, government bureaucracy, and the news media. It's entertaining, informative, amusing, and interesting: I was never bored, nor did my focus wane over the course of almost 400 pages. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member nohablo
Hyperkinetic and, thanks to Tom Wolfe's MANIC SCREAMING NARRATIVE VOICE, a little obnoxious and purple and overcooked, but still a punchy, (mostly) irreverent myth-deflater. SIDENOTE: You gotta wonder, though, about the accuracy of THE RIGHT STUFF. Because all the events seem shoehorned so neatly
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into Wolfe's novelistic, New-Journalism narrative arc, the material can feel a bit suspect. Not the facts, per se, but the emotions that Wolfe stamps onto his reticent astronauts and their families. Wolfe's hyper-charged prose also works to sort of undermine his validity,and he never seems to reach the narratorial reliability of, say, David Foster Wallace - who also noodles around with stylistics and EXCLAMATION POINTS, but in a way that's a little less Maniac-In-A-Fireworks-Store. Show Less
LibraryThing member othersam
On Tuesday October 14th 1947, Chuck Yeager flew into the history books as the first man to break the sound barrier; he did this with one arm almost completely immobilized because of the two ribs he'd cracked when he rode his horse straight into a gate while drunk two nights before (though of
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course, he didn’t tell anyone about his injury until afterwards). This book caused a sensation on publication for its amazingly intimate view of the American Space Program, and Tom Wolfe's trademark bombastic journalism style seems as fresh here now as it ever was. The film was good, but the book is better. Read this now, it's FANTASTIC. Show Less
LibraryThing member ddelmoni
One of my favorite books. Wolfe's history of the early space program is a book not to be missed. You'll be hooked from the first page. Then follow it up with the movie which is almost as good!
LibraryThing member RoseCityReader
This is my favorite book about astronauts. Of course, it is the only book about astronauts that I will ever read, so that isn't the strongest praise. But it is perfect for a general reader like me looking for an entertaining history of America's early space program.
Wolfe definitely keeps the tale
The most remarkable part of the story is the connection Wolfe makes between fighter jet pilots and astronauts. Having grown up in the NASA age, I did not know that the Air Force had a competing rocket program -- a program that managed to send pilots several miles into space and then have them actually land the aircraft back on earth -- before it was scuttled in favor of NASA's moon missions.
The only drawback of the book is Wolfe's Gonzo journalism style, which much have been refreshing and bold back in 1979. Now, the hipper-than-thou tone is a little tired and can get exasperating.
Wolfe definitely keeps the tale
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interesting. He focuses on the personal, rather than the technical and administrative, aspects of the Mercury space program and the first seven astronauts involved. He follows the seven through their early careers, mostly as test pilots, through each of their turns in a Mercury capsule.The most remarkable part of the story is the connection Wolfe makes between fighter jet pilots and astronauts. Having grown up in the NASA age, I did not know that the Air Force had a competing rocket program -- a program that managed to send pilots several miles into space and then have them actually land the aircraft back on earth -- before it was scuttled in favor of NASA's moon missions.
The only drawback of the book is Wolfe's Gonzo journalism style, which much have been refreshing and bold back in 1979. Now, the hipper-than-thou tone is a little tired and can get exasperating.
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LibraryThing member stubbyfingers
I found the story and the history absolutely fascinating. Imagine where the space program would be now if it wasn't for the Cold War?
LibraryThing member PointedPundit
This book was my introduction to Tom Wolfe – and what an introduction it was.
The country was mired in a black hole. President Nixon had resigned the Office of the President in disgrace. There was the continuing debacle in Iran. The anti-hero was king.
Who would have guessed a book about
Yet that is exactly was Wolfe penned. Beginning with the early test pilots and then proceeding to NASA’s Mercury program’s assault on the final frontier – space. A tale of good, old-fashioned American heroism; a thought, which to many in 1979 that was foreign, or at best, long-forgotten.
The book was controversial. As a New Journalist, Wolfe inserted himself into the lives of his "characters" as each in turn becomes a major player in the space program. It was a true story that tintillated the reader’s imagination. No novel could have done it better.
Beginning with an opening chapter on the terror of being a test pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americans were first attempting to break the sound barrier. Anyone who has ever read it will never forget its Blue Uniform litany. Test pilots, we discover, are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines on the edge. I recall having to punch myself to be reminded that I was not reading a book about the stock brokerage business.
Although Wolfe’s command of the English language is unparalleled, this edition is enhanced by the inclusion of images culled from Life and Look magazines, NASA and the Library of Congress. The photos chronicle the lives of the people and the social and political climate that created our country’s nascent space program.
The Right Stuff is my favorite book. Tom Wolfe is my favorite author. This edition is a tribute to both. Yet more than that, it is a tribute to the people and the spirit that made this story possible.
Penned by the Pointed Pundit
August 24, 2006
8:25:16 AM
The country was mired in a black hole. President Nixon had resigned the Office of the President in disgrace. There was the continuing debacle in Iran. The anti-hero was king.
Who would have guessed a book about
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old-fashioned heroism could capture the public’s attention?Yet that is exactly was Wolfe penned. Beginning with the early test pilots and then proceeding to NASA’s Mercury program’s assault on the final frontier – space. A tale of good, old-fashioned American heroism; a thought, which to many in 1979 that was foreign, or at best, long-forgotten.
The book was controversial. As a New Journalist, Wolfe inserted himself into the lives of his "characters" as each in turn becomes a major player in the space program. It was a true story that tintillated the reader’s imagination. No novel could have done it better.
Beginning with an opening chapter on the terror of being a test pilot's wife, the story cuts back to the late 1940s, when Americans were first attempting to break the sound barrier. Anyone who has ever read it will never forget its Blue Uniform litany. Test pilots, we discover, are people who live fast lives with dangerous machines on the edge. I recall having to punch myself to be reminded that I was not reading a book about the stock brokerage business.
Although Wolfe’s command of the English language is unparalleled, this edition is enhanced by the inclusion of images culled from Life and Look magazines, NASA and the Library of Congress. The photos chronicle the lives of the people and the social and political climate that created our country’s nascent space program.
The Right Stuff is my favorite book. Tom Wolfe is my favorite author. This edition is a tribute to both. Yet more than that, it is a tribute to the people and the spirit that made this story possible.
Penned by the Pointed Pundit
August 24, 2006
8:25:16 AM
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LibraryThing member Griff
Being one who was at a young age during the advent of the manned space program, watching in awe as these heroes of mine took flight, I cannot say enough positive things about this book. It captures the era wonderfully - the gritty heroics and swaggering confidence embodied in the space program of
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the time. The original astronauts are brought to life in multiple dimensions. This book is a joy to read - absolutely excellent. Show Less
LibraryThing member donhazelwood
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books I read by Tom Wolfe, A Man In Full & Bonfire of the Vanities. I really enjoy the sweeping backgrounds that Wolfe unfolds his views of what is right and wrong in American life. I had this in mind going into reading this book, a book in which I’ve seen the
The mid fifties through the early sixties ushered in the golden era of the jet age and this is the background which the book is set against. Wolfe contrasts NASA’s Project Mercury against the Air Force’s X-1 project and how the first seven NASA astronauts are viewed through the eyes of the public and their counterpart pilots. How we, as Americans viewed these seven as our protectors against the Russian space program. A space program, that by putting the first satellite along with the first man and woman into orbit, sent shivers through the American population that we would be going to bed under a communist moon and there would be fleets of Russian cosmonauts hurling nuclear bombs onto American soil from miles above, out of reach.
I really enjoyed Wolfe’s detailed accounts of John Glenn’s and Scott Carpenter’s 3 orbits as well as Gordon Cooper’s 34 hours in space. I really felt like I was in the capsule hearing the noises of the cockpit and experiencing the forces applied to their bodies as they hurtled through space. One unexpected outcome is not feeling as scared of early space travel. Seriously, that is some way old technology that was throwing these astronauts up 130 miles above the ground at speed in-excess of 5k mph. But, I don’t see myself wanting to sign up for the next Space Shuttle flight.
One thing for sure, I don’t think I ever want to see the word ziggurat again!
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movie adaptation for at least 25 times, if not more, and as I put the book down, finished, I felt maybe a trifle disappointed.The mid fifties through the early sixties ushered in the golden era of the jet age and this is the background which the book is set against. Wolfe contrasts NASA’s Project Mercury against the Air Force’s X-1 project and how the first seven NASA astronauts are viewed through the eyes of the public and their counterpart pilots. How we, as Americans viewed these seven as our protectors against the Russian space program. A space program, that by putting the first satellite along with the first man and woman into orbit, sent shivers through the American population that we would be going to bed under a communist moon and there would be fleets of Russian cosmonauts hurling nuclear bombs onto American soil from miles above, out of reach.
I really enjoyed Wolfe’s detailed accounts of John Glenn’s and Scott Carpenter’s 3 orbits as well as Gordon Cooper’s 34 hours in space. I really felt like I was in the capsule hearing the noises of the cockpit and experiencing the forces applied to their bodies as they hurtled through space. One unexpected outcome is not feeling as scared of early space travel. Seriously, that is some way old technology that was throwing these astronauts up 130 miles above the ground at speed in-excess of 5k mph. But, I don’t see myself wanting to sign up for the next Space Shuttle flight.
One thing for sure, I don’t think I ever want to see the word ziggurat again!
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LibraryThing member dandelionroots
Details the inklings and eventual advent of the space program from breaking the sound barrier to Project Mercury to the decision to land a man on the moon, all told in Wolfe's... delightful style. Structured around the military test pilots who daily risked their lives pushing the boundaries of
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human achievement - oozing the right stuff. Hooray for the Cold War? I could be pretty easily convinced that without it, there wouldn't be a space program. Show Less
LibraryThing member Hae-Yu
This story easily entered my Top 5 books within the first 2 chapters. It only grew from there. Wolfe's style, pacing, and his narrative voice demonstrate an extraordinary gift of storytelling surpassing many past and present peers. That narrator voice is pretty unique in writing - conversational
Wolfe was not afraid to let his own opinions show (which I guess was the critical component of "New Journalism") but he doesn't attempt to pass opinions as facts aka John Reed, et al. You know it's a person telling it as they see it with the resulting knowledge that you know where they're coming from. Additionally, when he's relating how a witness perceived an event, it is still in the narrative voice, rather than adopting the voice of the person who used it. In many ways, this could have been a disastrous approach, but it works. You feel this is a guy telling you a story.
There was hilarity on most pages, even in the morbid statistics. I loved the portions on the chimps. You really felt for Ham and Enos and the tortures they endured. The worse the picture became, the more Wolfe ratcheted up the wide-eyed, can-you-believe-this-crap comedy.
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and familiar, sharp and analytical, a bit of the South in it...Wolfe was not afraid to let his own opinions show (which I guess was the critical component of "New Journalism") but he doesn't attempt to pass opinions as facts aka John Reed, et al. You know it's a person telling it as they see it with the resulting knowledge that you know where they're coming from. Additionally, when he's relating how a witness perceived an event, it is still in the narrative voice, rather than adopting the voice of the person who used it. In many ways, this could have been a disastrous approach, but it works. You feel this is a guy telling you a story.
There was hilarity on most pages, even in the morbid statistics. I loved the portions on the chimps. You really felt for Ham and Enos and the tortures they endured. The worse the picture became, the more Wolfe ratcheted up the wide-eyed, can-you-believe-this-crap comedy.
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LibraryThing member amerynth
What I really enjoyed about Tom Wolfe's book chronicling the life and times of early test pilots and astronauts were the stories about the people involved. I also found Wolfe's entire premise -- that the early astronauts were looked down upon by test pilots as lacking that mythical "right stuff"
What I didn't like is Wolfe's writing style -- there are too many amazing declarations!, too much attention to minutia that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things and too much glossing over some of the bigger details that would have really mattered.
This book was okay, but I enjoyed Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire" far more than Wolfe's book when it comes to astronaut tales.
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quality. The nation's embrace of the early astronauts was therefore surprising as the line between pilot and test subject became increasingly blurred.What I didn't like is Wolfe's writing style -- there are too many amazing declarations!, too much attention to minutia that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things and too much glossing over some of the bigger details that would have really mattered.
This book was okay, but I enjoyed Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire" far more than Wolfe's book when it comes to astronaut tales.
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LibraryThing member RodV
Highly engrossing, often thrilling, and always enlightening. I'm just sorry I waited so long to read it.
LibraryThing member Schmerguls
This book concentrates on the first astronauts, including John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, and the other five. The account of the actual flights is exciting but some of the pages between flights I found less enthralling. At the end there is vivid account of Chuck Yeager's piloting of an experimental
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plane from which he had to eject, sustaing severe injuries. The book was published in 1979, but does not cover the moon landing --it ends with the Mrercury project. Readabble but not as gripping at times as I hoped. Show Less
LibraryThing member Sheila1957
Excellent telling of the pilots who broke speed records and the early astronaut program. Mr. Wolfe puts a human face to the space program and dishes some dirt while letting us know what was occurring in those days. Easy, fascinating read.
Subjects
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — 1980)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Finalist — General Nonfiction — 1979)
Best Fiction for Young Adults (Selection — 1980)
Notable Books List (1979)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1979
Physical description
352 p.; 5.52 inches
ISBN
0312427565 / 9780312427566