Book Recommendation: The Right Stuff, by Tom Wolfe

[A word about book recommendations: I’ll try to keep it short, limiting things to a brief synopsis and a few reasons that the book deserves your attention. There won’t be a rating system, as I won’t waste your time discussing books that you shouldn’t read.]

Written in 1982, Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff is a nonfiction account of the evolution of the fighter-jocks of the late 1950’s into the Mercury astronauts of the 1960’s. There are two parts to any quality nonfiction work, and in this case both parts are great.

The first part is the history, which in this case is amazing. This is a story worth telling, to be sure. Wolfe starts off with the general culture of fighter-jockdom, detailing the life of a navy flyer (and test pilot) from the perspective of both the pilot and his wife. He then moves to the account of Chuck Yeager’s breaking of the sound barrier, complete with all of the near-death experiences, barroom shenanigans, and detailed physics information you can imagine. Next, the meat of the book details the selection process and subsequent rise to fame of the Mercury astronauts, the first seven Americans to venture into space. Wolfe captures not only the personal and professional lives of Shepard, Glenn, Grissom, and the others, but also the way in which the fledgling space program captured the imagination of the entire nation. It is a fascinating story, from beginning to end, and Wolfe’s comprehensive approach and attention to detail make it well worth reading.

Second, the writing itself is stellar. Nonfiction can be pretty dry to say the least, but Wolfe writes in a cavalier, engaging style that makes a colorful story even more entertaining. Consider his description of navy pilot Pete Conrad: “At any moment his face was likely to break into a wild grin revealing the gap between his front teeth. The Hickory Kid sort, he was; a Hickory Kid on the deb circuit, however. He had an air of energy, self-confidence, ambition, joie de vivre.” Wolfe demonstrates similar originality describing how the bad news of a pilot’s death should be delivered to his wife: “…a man should bring the news when the time comes, a man with some official or moral authority, a clergyman or a comrade of the newly deceased. Furthermore, he should bring the bad news in person. He should turn up at the front door and ring the bell and be standing there like a pillar of coolness and competence, bearing the bad news on ice, like a fish.” If nonfiction is typically dry, The Right Stuff is soaking wet. Wolfe’s style is at once creative, comical, and deeply insightful.

If you have any interest whatsoever in aviation, the space program, or generally in this major chapter of American history, I highly recommend Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff. And for what it’s worth, the movie of the same name is both extremely well done and, as far as memory serves, quite faithful to the historical accuracy of the book.