Hooking Up

InHooking Up, Tom Wolfe ranges from coast to coast observing 'the lurid carnival actually taking place in the mightiest country on earth in the year 2000.' From teenage sexual manners and mores to fundamental changes in the way human beings now regard themselves thanks to the hot new fields of genetics and neuroscience; from his legendary profile of William Shawn, editor ofThe New Yorker(first published in 1965), to a remarkable portrait of Bob Noyce, the man who invented Silicon Valley, Tom Wolfe the master of reportage and satire returns in vintage form. Tom Wolfeis the author of more than a dozen books, among them such contemporary classics asThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,The Right Stuff,The Bonfire of the Vanities, andA Man in Full. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he earned his B.A. at Washington and Lee University and a Ph.D. in American studies at Yale. Wolfe lives in New York City. InHooking Up, his first collection of brief writings to appear in two decades, Tom Wolfe ranges from coast to coast observing 'the lurid carnival actually taking place in the mightiest country on earth in the year 2000.' From teenage sexual manners and mores to fundamental changes in the way human beings now regard themselves thanks to the hot new fields of genetics and neuroscienceand from his legendary and controversial profile of William Shawn, editor ofThe New Yorker(first published in 1965), to a remarkable recent portrait of Bob Noyce, the man who invented Silicon ValleyWolfe the master of reportage and satire returns in vintage form. "I love Tom Wolfe . . . Whenever some big bizarro thing happens . . . I want the man in the white suit to do his usual exhaustive reporting, turn the labels inside out and the hypocrites upside down . . . and tell me what's what in one of those jittering, dazzling riffs of his."Maureen Dowd,The New York Times "At heart he is and always will be a terrific reporter.Hooking Upprovides a great introduction to Wolfe the nonfiction stylist: the peerless portraitist, the contrarian social critic, and the literary bomb thrower. The book's title is a sexual metaphor, but in Wolfe's hands, it means making connections among the culture's disparate corners. And nobody hooks up better than he does."Malcolm Jones,Newsweek "The publication ofHooking Up, Wolfe's first book of short pieces in 20 years, is reason enough for celebration . . . Since becoming a bestselling novelist, it seemed as if the master of New Journalism had abandoned himself to literature forever. Happily, as this collection of most recent essays proves, he has not. Delicious."Benjamin Svetkey,Entertainment Weekly "The finest essayist-cum-novelist-cum-reporter of our era, Wolfe combines lively writing and endless energy with an astonishingly astute, ever-curious eye."Forbesmagazine "Turn to the three essays grouped under the title 'The Human Beast,' and you will be in Wolfe heaven. The first of these is an exuberant history of the birth of Silicon Valley . . . 'Digibabble, Fairy Dust, and the Human Anthill' moves from the semiconductor industry to the Internet and then, by a kind of intuitive leap, to neuroscience and sociobiology. 'Sorry, but Your Soul Just Died' delves into brain imaging and the genetic determination of character."Michael Upchurch,Seattle Times "[The author's] fans will find plenty of evidence that Wolfe remains willing to plunge into 'the raw, raucous, lust-soaked rout that throbs with amped-up octophonic typanum all around [him]' and thatespecially in his nonfictionhe can still grab the brass ring."Publishers Weekly(starred review)

Tom Wolfe is the author of more than a dozen books, among them such contemporary classics as The Electric Kool-Aid Test, The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and A Man
in Full. A native of Richmond, Virginia, he earned his B.A. at Washington and Lee
University and a Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale. He lives in New York City.