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The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby [Paperback]

Tom Wolfe (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Book Description

Publication Date: Nov 1 1987
"An excellent book by a genius," said Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., of this now classic exploration of the 1960s from the founder of new journalism.
 
"This is a book that will be a sharp pleasure to reread years from now, when it will bring back, like a falcon in the sky of memory, a whole world that is currently jetting and jazzing its way somewhere or other."--Newsweek
 
 
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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The "streamline baby" in Tom Wolfe's 1965 debut book is a hot rod, but the car's candy colors and wild lines can't match the prose style Wolfe devised to describe them. The title essay--Wolfe's first magazine article--launched the New Journalism, partly because its original title was "There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!) Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!) Around the Bend (Brummmmmmmmmmmmmmm)..." His voice was more shocking than any subculture he uncovered. Until Wolfe (Ph.D., Yale), nobody struck gold by applying Ph.D.-speak to lowbrow subjects. Kurt Vonnegut famously called this an "excellent book by a genius who will do anything to get attention."

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

Review

"Might well be required reading in courses with names like American studies."--Time Magazine
 
"I'm always rereading Tom Wolfe's The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby."--David Gates
 
"Tom Wolfe is a terrific writer."--The Washington Monthly
 
"Wolfe can do things with words and settings that few writers are capable of matching."--Tom Walker, The Denver Post
 
"The man's done the impossible. He--Yes!--understands America!"--Houston Chronicle

"His eye and ear for detailed observation are incomparable; and observation is to the satirist what bullets are to a gun."--The Boston Sunday Globe

 

 

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Kandy Koloured Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby Jan 27 2013
By Vladimir Cekota
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
After all these years, Kandy holds up remarkably well. Even though some of the people are gone and the events he writes about are now distant past,it doesn't really matter because the observations remain lucid and spot on. He holds up a mirror to the society snobs and celebrities but you also get the full picture of the times with interviews with pioneers of then emerging trends, from car culture to music recording. My favourite are the observations of the doormen who park cars for the Manhattan elites. This is not the official spoon fed version or the pc activist tripe you get these days from the dimwits writing for the NYT opinion section or the New Yorker... the man has never sold out...check out his latest novel about Miami... Back to Blood. I'm hoping he'll take on Al (Jazeera) Gore next.
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Amazon.com: 4.4 out of 5 stars  14 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Bathroom Book May 31 2006
By jjlaw - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a collection of short tales about contemporary New York and America written in the early 1960s. As you might expect, Wolfe is a little more rough around the edges here, and so there is a little hit and miss. However, The Last American Hero, about driver Junior Johnson and the early beginnings of NASCAR, is breathtaking - here are the true buds of Wolfe's ideas on American Masculinity that were to flower in The Right Stuff.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Get It If You Can Find It - Fantastic Read! Nov 20 2004
By Trevor Seigler - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Tom Wolfe began his career as a "New Journalist" with this book back in 1965, and when I discovered it some thirty years later I instantly became a fan of what this man is sellin'. The articles collected in here range a wide variety of topics, and even the duller pieces are punctuated with traces of brilliance.

The most memorable for me (seeing as I haven't read it in a few years) deal with some interesting and illuminating topics, both of their time and somehow relevant today:

The title piece dealing with custom cars (what's the hottest reality show staple besides weddings and home decor?)

Phil Spector's oddness (chilling in light of his recent legal troubles)

The beginnings of what would become NASCAR (now the biggest sport in the South)

Cassius Clay AKA Muhammed Ali (the role of the black athelete in American society is still being worked out)

Vegas' rise from the desert

There are countless others, products of their time and yet transcending eras to speak to us today. Again, not every piece works, but it's a credit to the book as a whole that I can't recall which ones were failures.

If you can find this, get it. You'll look at thinks differently afterwords...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful peak at the pre-sixties Mar 17 2009
By thefensk - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Curiously, I picked up a copy of this book right before Christmas. My wife gave me a copy of Boom! by Tom Brokaw for Christmas. I decided to read Tom Wolfe first. I call it the pre-sixties in my review title ... this is because so many people now think of the sixties in terms of the late sixties counter-culture. This books paints the underlayer of what was going on before all that hippie/stop-the-war/change-the-world/woodstock stuff even started. The revolution was already happening and we didn't even know it yet. Nostalgic? Not really. This is a glimpse into Wolfe developing that all-seeing Tom Wolfe inner eye to look past what was happening to see and describe what was REALLY happening. This is an amazing book, very vibrant and entertaining and as much a context piece as it is an historical artifact. You want to understand the sixties? Read this book as a primer.
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