BOOKS
On top were a few lonely strands that barely bridged the two remain–
ing crops. He wore a long-sleeved white guayabera shirt, quite an
exquisite one that only halfWay successfully hid his much-too-broad
rnidsection and hips.
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And then there is the cost of everything: "She had paid $20,000 for a
table and invited nine guests. She had bought this dress-a black silk taffeta
embroidered with tiny red dots, bare-shouldered and scarcely even knee–
length. . .for $3,500....She had spent $4,200 for this necklace...$225 for hair
coloring (pineapple blond) and a hairdo at Philippe Brudnoy's...$150 for
makeup at Lacrosse, [and] $850 for these black lizard and patent-leather high–
heeled shoes." Dress, furnishings, and the expenditure of money, as much as
speech and behavior, reflect character, status, and the moment in time.
The "documenting" of race relations is one of the novel's substantial
achievements. Wolfe has captured the tone of condescension in the affec–
tion of the new rich white for his black retainers; the calculations of the
shrewd black mayor whose performance is a balancing act among con–
stituencies, a performance necessary for his political survival; and the angst
of the black middle-class professional, trying to assuage his black con–
science as he moves into the white world. Wolfe takes pleasure in his
characters' difficulties and weaknesses with a minimum of compassion.
Wolfe has a deadly ear for crackerspeak, blackspeak, prisonerspeak, and
technospeak, though for the benefi t of the reader much of the dialogue is
given in standard English. As Norman Mailer pointed out in his review of
the book, he does not have much of an ear for the way women speak and
think and feel. Oddly enough, despi te his good ear, the dialogue sometimes
seems contrived, a vehicle for imparting information. Characters assume the
roles of interviewer and interviewee. In one scene Wolfe wants us to know
the neighborhoods of Atlanta, so he suspends the action and allows the
mayor to take his fraternity brother, Roger Too White, for a tour of the city.
Roger registers the reader's impatience when in answer to the question
about the ownership of a mansion that has come into view, the Mayor
responds: "I'll tell you in due course.. .I'm just trying to construct a narra–
tive, you might say, and I'mjust hoping it'll unfold naturally." Roger's voice
takes on "a peevish edge:" "Okay. ..construct and unfold." Like Roger, we
want Wolfe to get on wi th it. We are rarely confused by the complications
of plotting, the intercomlections of its various strands, because Wolfe has the
reporter's compulsion for full disclosure. He makes everything explicit,
leaving very little to inference--that is, to the imagination .
Wolfe's characters
are
the complexity of their social situations. Charlie
Croker is reducible to his macho power and courage, his entrepreneurial
