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Author: Tom Wolfe
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Dimension: 9.7 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches
Weight: 2.4 pounds.

"Bango"?
This book reads pretty much like what it is: a clever 70-something trying to capture the language and culture of today's college students. The story is OK, but you couldn't exactly call Wolfe the authentically insouciant and ironic voice of a generation.... more

Not as great as I'd heard and hoped....
I was really excited to read this novel after hearing how fantastic it was. I was disappointed. Did Wolfe capture the essence of college life nowadays? Probably. Did it have the feel of being vulgar just to be vulgar? Yep. Charlotte Simmons character... more

Disappointed
I love Wolfe; only one word for Charlotte - ARF!

Tom needs to go re-read "The Right Stuff" so he can remember why people buy his books.

more

very disappointed!
i bought this book because i have heard all the hype about it and figured it ought to be pretty good. normally i'm not a picky reader, as i usually pick up a book one day and finish it the very next! but this one was so hard to get into! first of all,... more

Who is....How come?????
Who is reviewer Borstelman and why does Amazon keep repeating his one star review? (March 8, March 10, Feb.24)

In case Amazon allows this review: the book is great. It is the best novel on the best seller list. Its placement is a miracle... more

Wow

It's hard to believe that Tom Wolfe was once a "cutting-edge" journalist on par with the late Hunter S. Thompson. I'm really sorry I purchased this fat book. It's certainly the most overwritten, wordy, and ultimately SHALLOW novel I have read in... more

This can't be our Tom Wolfe!!
Dear Tom,
Nice try, but no....
This is not up to your standards and we are all very sad.
Please start writing a new novel soon. We still love you and all will be forgotten once your new book comes out!! Baseball would be a wonderful... more

If only...
I love the way Wolfe writes. Furthermore, he brings you into the novel. Charlotte Simmons is no exception. His insights into people--pretty much everything, in fact---are singular. From the beginning, you root for poor (literally) Charlotte Simmons... more

TAT 128
The ending is no end for Charlotte. Here are some thoughts for her fictive future: before coming into her own, she becomes an Ilsa Lund rather than an Emma Bovary prototype. In a variation on the theme and with a contemporary political brush,... more

Dickens, Twain and Wolfe. Three of the best novelists of
all time. And the trilogy of "Bonfire," "Man" and "Charlotte" (although not written as a trilogy) really defines American life as it was lived in the last twenty years.

Name a current novelist who sells well to a large audience, is entertaining... more

Despite all it's faults, it's still entertaining as hell.
I was immediately drawn into Tom Wolfe's world of college life in the 00s. What does a 73 year old man know about this kind of stuff? Enough to make an interesting story out of it. Critics are too busy counting the things Tom Wolfe got wrong in this novel... more

Entertaining, but little payoff
Tom Wolfe's new 700-page opus is an entertaining read. It moves quickly and keeps you turning pages. You may even laugh out loud on occasion and be reminded of similar situations/characters from your college days.

Is this good literature?... more

Nice try..but...
...for my two cents, let me just say this: I graduated from a large well-known, state university two years ago--so when I saw all the hype around this book, I took the plunge and bought it. My mom loves this writer; the years I was growing up,... more

Heck, I laughed!

Bottom line: is this book entertaining? Yes!

Tom Wolfe had a lot of fun writing this book -- and I had a lot of fun reading it. Having a college age son served to increase my interest in the theme of the book: the culture of today's... more

Interesting characters, but, story gets tedious
Wolfe captures the college environment well and develops the characters of this novel very well, but, the story seems to go on forever. The novel starts well -- several stories being weaved together -- some interesting characters, including the only white... more

Why all the bad reviews? I love it!
I read this book without having read anything by Tom Wolfe before nor any of the reviews of the book. I just finished it, and am now reading the reviews, and am shocked. Why is to being panned so much? I loved it! The characters were stereotypes, but... more

I just gotta throw this out there....
So, I've been reading the reviews of "I Am Charlotte Simmons," in which most people have problems like "Charlotte isn't a normal college freshman." And to that I say, Exactly. The point is that he is trying to SEE the normal college student through... more

Readable, But Then Just Laughable
As a fan of Tom Wolfe, I tried to forget all the negative reviews this received before reading it. I bought the book the week it came out. Started reading it. Got through one chapter and put it aside for a couple months.

I finally picked... more

Good, but not his best work
This is an entertaining book, and if you are a Tom Wolfe fan, like I am, a must-read. However, I don't think it measures up to "A Man In Full" which is amazing. Wolfe has some interesting insights into today's college world. The descriptions of the... more

A great reflection
Another book about selfish people who do selfish things for selfish reasons. In the end everyone in this book is only looking out for themselves. All the same I loved this book till the end. The end didn't fit, it didn't work. But of course I won't tell... more

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