Thomas Wolfe's novels ?

is it more the style, the language, the way he describes things?

Definitely this. I think he is sort of a cross between Faulkner and Steinbeck in style and prose.

I have only read Look Homeward Angel (the work that is mostly at the centerpiece of this film) and The Lost Boy (short story \ novella) about his brother’s death.

I do like reading Wolfe, but it is a commitment. LHA has miles of some of the most descriptive, beautiful prose you can imagine. I love the way he uses the natural world to elicit emotion. On the other side, LHA also has a great deal of purple prose, and the main character is frustrating. For all of Perkins’ work, LHA still could have been cut down more.

You do have to give Wolfe credit, I think he was pretty honest. Eugene in LHA is a fictionalized version of himself, and you can’t help but to care for him, but you often want to shake him as well. I think Wolfe was acutely aware of how he came across to other people, and you can see Eugene throughout the novel trying to reign himself in.

I have also enjoyed reading about the family itself. As I said in another thread, his parents are worthy of a film themselves. Again, the Gant parents in LHA are fictionalized versions of the real parents, and the family did have a local reputation long before Thomas Wolfe ever became famous.

I have had a copy of You Can’t Go Home Again for years, and have not read it yet. Between my job(s) and the academic demands with reading non-fiction I find it hard to choose a book that size to read for my fiction break. Every time I look at it, I pass because I know I can read three other books in the time it will me to read that one. I have YCGA on a shelf right next to War and Peace, I love the Russian authors, including Tolstoy, but it is also a mammoth novel. I am telling myself they are for retirement if I live that long.

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I got the book from the library and I am glad I did. It was pretty neat holding that massive volume in my hands, reading the foreword written by Max, imagining the movie as I began to read what Wolfe wrote.

But I didn't get very far. I skipped forward, randomly, several times and read parts of pages. I quickly concluded that I didn't really care what his life was and how he pulled himself up from his humble beginnings. When I look back I find my own life as interesting, perhaps even more interesting. So I suppose I have to resign one more time to the fact that I don't find novels very interesting, even semi autobiographical ones. Maybe especially semi autobiographical ones.

But I do get a glimpse of why Wolfe may have had many fans over the years, he did write in an interesting and illuminating manner, but it just isn't for me. Such is life!

..*.. TxMike ..*..

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Great question. I burned through You Can't Go Home Again, but could never crack Look Homeward Angel. I admit I often cheated in reading his works... skipped to the last 10 pages 'cuz I love the prose in his endings. As far as comparative lit goes.. Check out Kerouac's The Town and the City. It's really a tribute to Wolfe who Jack obviously loved.

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I had never read any of Wolfe's books until a couple of months ago. I was in Asheville, NC (which was his hometown) on business and I had some spare time and did a little sight-seeing including the Thomas Wolfe home and a self-guided walking tour of the city and his grave (in the same cemetery as O Henry). When I got back home, I got Look Homeward Angel (LHA) from the library and read the entire novel. There is no real plot to the book. He basically describes growing up in Ashville and then going away to college at the University of North Carolina. He writes very long and descriptive paragraphs (remember the line in the movie where the girl tells Perkins that it is a long paragraph and he says it started four pages ago - that is Wolfe. Since there is no plot, most of the book has nothing to do with the story. I will say that he was very smart as he makes hundreds of literary allusions to Shakespeare, mythology, poetry, and history. You really need an annotated version of LHA to appreciate it - but I can't imagine how long that book would be or how long it would take to read that! Wolfe is very difficult to read (primarily because there is no plot) and you can put his book down. There are no cliffhangers that make you want to read the next page or chapter. Wolfe was a big fan of James Joyce and LHA was supposed to be Wolfe's Ulysses. I will say that LHA is much more readable than Ulysses but Ulysses is the most unreadable book I have ever read. After reading LHA, I read a biography about him (primarily to find out how much of LHA was actually true). That book was Thomas Wolfe by Elizabeth Nowell. She was his agent and knew him very well. My only complaint about her book was that she also had Wolfe's penchant for adding too much detail. The biographical parts were very interesting. However, about 50 % of the book was long quotes from his books (in particular LHA which I had just read) and other letters and writings. If she had just stuck to the biography, it would be a much better (and shorter) book. After wading through LHA, I am not sure if I will read another of Wolfe's books. May go back and re-read some Hemingway or Fitzgerald that I read in high school

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The following is a sample of Wolfe's writing. Very descriptive but obscure.

America's Switzerland. The Beautiful Land of the Sky. Jesus God!
Old Bowman said he'll be a rich man some day. Built up all the way
to Pasadena. Come on out. Too late now. Think he was in love
with her. No matter. Too old. Wants her out there. No fool
like--White bellies of the fish. A spring somewhere to wash me
through. Clean as a baby once more. New Orleans, the night Jim
Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan. The man who tried to rob me.
My clothes and my watch. Five blocks down Canal Street in my
nightgown. Two A.M. Threw them all in a heap--watch landed on
top. Fight in my room. Town full of crooks and pickpockets for
prizefight. Make good story. Policeman half hour later. They
come out and beg you to come in. Frenchwomen. Creoles. Beautiful
Creole heiress. Steamboat race. Captain, they are gaining. I
will not be beaten. Out of wood. Use the bacon she said proudly.
There was a terrific explosion. He got her as she sank the third
time and swam to shore. They powder in front of the window,
smacking their lips at you. For old men better maybe. Who gets
the business there? Bury them all above ground. Water two feet
down. Rots them. Why not? All big jobs. Italy. Carrara and
Rome. Yet Brutus is an hon-or-able man. What's a Creole? French
and Spanish.

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While he was no Steinbeck, he paved the way for him. Well him and Hemingway. Wolfe perfectly captured that 1920s-3os America, the pre-war America. His novels were pretty hopeful despite the depression of the times, much like America itself. He was a good writer and yes deserves the praise.

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