The right stuff tom wolfe free download

Wolfe cynically adds that NASA covered up Grissom's blunders in the interest of protecting its public image.

In reality, there's no evidence for Wolfe's position. Even the curmudgeonly Flight Director Chris Kraft, whose autobiography shows no reluctance to tear into other astronauts, has steadfastly maintained that Grissom wasn't at fault. The clearest evidence of Grissom's blamelessness is the fact that he was chosen to command the first Gemini mission and the first manned Apollo mission.

If NASA's administration had believed that Grissom was incompetent, there would have been no need for them to make any embarrassing public admissions; they could have asked him to resign "for personal reasons," or they could have kept him on salary while simply not assigning him to any new missions.

A lesser flaw with the book is that Wolfe presents his opinions as facts, regarding the meaning of "the right stuff," and the meaning of the public's adoration of the Mercury Seven, but these flaws are easier to overlook.

And having said all that, this is an otherwise compelling look at the early days of manned space exploration, at the glory days of Edwards Air Force Base, and at the test pilots who first broke the sound barrier and went on to fly rocket planes to the edge of space. View all 15 comments. You were a true original. I'll never forget the pure pleasure I had reading this book, as well as the great satire that was, that is, Bonfire Of The Vanities.

Tom Wolfe's book about the American space race is a high-octane non-fiction masterpiece. Wolfe's maximalist style — full of exclamation marks!!! He has a voice like no one else's, and although he obviously did tons of research, he imparts his facts clearly and gets inside the heads of the scientists, astronauts and their wives like a great novelist. His narrator is part anthropologist, part satirist, part historian, and nothing escapes his eye. Even if you've seen the terrific Philip Kaufman film, I highly recommend reading this ridiculously entertaining and informative book that tells you a lot about the space program, the Cold War, the rise of mass media, gender roles and even near the end the race issue.

And just for fun, try reading some passages aloud. It's — excuse the pun — a blast. View all 9 comments. Thanks to my father dumping them back on me, I now spend my spare time unearthing lost treasures from their plastic depths. It looks more like a toy, something that a kid might have in his backyard to play rocket ship, rather than a vehicle that actually took a man into space.

What Tom Wolfe did here is try to convey the mindset of an America panicked by suddenly finding itself behind the Soviet Union in the space race, and how in its desperation it turned seven pilots chosen to be the first astronauts into national heroes. Those men would find themselves in a media spotlight where the image they presented was often more important than their actual skills in the cockpit. The fact that Yeager did this with broken ribs and used a length of sawed-off broom handle as a lever to close the hatch on his X-1 rocket plane because he was in too much pain to lean over made it that much more impressive.

To them the Mercury program was a publicity stunt in which the astronauts would only be sealed in a can and shot into space without really flying the ship at all. Hell, it was so easy that a monkey could do it, and a couple actually did. Yet after the media declared the Mercury 7 as the best and bravest that America had to offer everyone started forgetting about the test pilots and put all the resources and attention on the astronauts. The seven men themselves would start pushing back for changes that gave them more control of their spacecraft, and while they may have started out as a little more than guinea pigs they used their popularity to get more power and control within the fledgling NASA.

More importantly to them, it would show the world that they really did have the right stuff. This is all written more as a novel than a history. It also delves into the personal lives of the astronauts where they and their wives would try to present an All-American image even as some of the men were taking full advantage of the new celebrity they had attained.

As a space geek and historical stickler I do find it lacking at a couple of points. I also think he also does a disservice to Gus Grissom whose mission nearly ended in disaster after splashdown when his capsule door unexpectedly blew open. Grissom nearly drowned at the capsule was lost at sea.

It was recovered almost 40 years later. It has been restored and can be seen at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, KS. View all 8 comments. Aug 02, Elizabeth K. I seem to read one about every 15 years and in between I forget what an unpleasant experience I find it.

I cannot! The exclamation points! I'm one of those people who, constitutionally, cannot ignore an exclamation point on the printed page, so reading this was like being shouted at for great lengths of time.

As everyone in the free world already knows, this is Tom Wolfe's book about the Mercury Space program, focusing on the personalities of the test pilots and the social significance of beating the Russians into space, or you know, failing to do that. I'm sure I've seen the movie countless times, mostly in parts on cable, but I had never read the book and that didn't seem right.

I'm not even sure it seems right now, either, but I will say that for a book that I found almost painful to read, I have absolutely no doubt it informs just about every image we have of the space race and NASA in popular culture.

So that part is impressive. Grade: I don't even know. Recommended: This is one of those books where I feel like I gained something in the end, but the process of getting there was almost unbearable. Mar 24, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: science , shelf , non-fiction. And while that really dates me, it also sparked my fascination with the OTHER side of the science fiction coin. And even if I'm not fanatical about learning science, I've never stopped learning and I don't want to.

Sure, I may be doing it only to give my own writing much more verve, but understanding reality has been an end in and of itself. So what about the book, man? It's great! Exciting, with novelistic concessions, flaws, tension, dramatic release, and pure Right Stuff splattering all over the place. What is the Right Stuff? It's Men, son. It's Real Men.

So many of the aspects to the early test pilots made me want to cringe with all the drunk driving, drunk flying, womanizing, and all the doublespeak going on in American culture at the time. I mean, the insistence that the public needs to be told and shown what to think was intense and to a modern eye, as pathetic and commonplace, if of a VERY different tone, as it is today.

Everyone tells everyone else what to think now, but it's fractured. Back then, everyone was doing whatever they wanted under the surface and the whole collective banded together to put on a brave, otherworldly, face back then. Or at least, that's the impression. And heck, that may not even be the most important part of this book. The heroism is. The cult of personality is.

The Space Program was in decline back when I watched this movie the first time and it sure as hell still is, now, and I'm given a very big impression that it only became a thing because of the personalities behind it. Kennedy is King Arthur and his Knights, the astronauts. The idealism and the space race and kicking the Soviets in the space-can was larger than life Of course, isn't it the same today? Cult of personality can bring it out and kill it.

It's not about science or even NEED. It's not about doing all the real things we need to do as a species if we have a hope of surviving. It's about narrative. And if even a tiny bit of that goes away, then the support of the public will kill it. LOL do I sound bitter?

Leaving soapbox now. View all 7 comments. Exhilarating, uncanny, and - unusual for Wolfe - concise. The man's range as a writer - going from drug-fueled hippie rebellion to death-defying test pilots with unquestioned loyalty to the state - remains virtually unprecedented.

View 1 comment. Catch-up Review 2 of 4: So this was a buddy read among the pantsless, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Unfortunately, for me, it was more of a failure to launch than a successful mission.

See what I did there? I wanted to learn about the men who made this mission, the ones brave enough to leave the planet and try to land on the moon, the ones that clearly had cojones the size of beachballs that's the "right stuff" - spoiler alert The writing is At all. The tone and style was also extremely problematic to me. On the one hand, Tom Wolfe is pulling zero punches when it comes to describing these pilots and the danger they constantly faced during their test flights.

But, on the other hand, at some point he crossed the line from "healthy respect" into "gleefully macabre". The way that he would go into gruesome, unnecessary detail when it came to jet crashes, and what happens to the pilot in them - not only in general terms, but minute detailing of the death, the smell of the burning, and the texture and the appearance of the corpse afterward Which is super fucked up.

One part in particular really bothered me in this way, and it was extremely offensive to me how he portrayed it. Now, I should just add a quick note here that I have family in the military, and I respect those who serve, even if it might be for reasons I disagree with, but I am not one who blindly waves the "support our troops" flag or thinks anyone in uniform is sacred or something.

I can even walk by a uniformed person and NOT thank them for their service. It's crazy, I know. So, I think it should say something that I was super fucking offended by the way that Wolfe portrayed the death of one of these men who died on duty. It was gratuitous, completely unnecessary, and actually pissed me off because of how irreverently and excitedly he wrote about it. Granted, the surviving pilots would have had to distance themselves from the understanding that it could be them crashing and burning at any time But they were the ones who still had to go up in a plane the next day.

Their attitude was understandable to me. Wolfe's was not. This is nonfiction. These men were real people. They were someone's son. Someone's father.

Someone's husband. Someone's brother, or cousin, or friend. He used these men's gruesome deaths to feed his fucking gleeful gore fetish and it made me mad. The scene where the pilot bailed out and his parachute didn't open We get it.

We understand what an foot direct freefall onto concrete, while strapped into a pilot seat, will do to a human body. There's no need to write what he wrote. There just isn't. The attitude and tone he chose to go with is disgusting. I understand that this pilot would have been alive but unable to do anything about his fate.

But rather than acknowledging that and being respectful of the terror of his situation in his last moments, and the dedication it takes to know, every single day, that this could be your last, and you know that despite all their talk and bravado, every single one of these men did know that, Wolfe goes the complete other way and reduces this person to "a bag of fertilizer".

How fucking disrespectful. How insulting. How cruel to his family to write something like that into a book for posterity. That shit sickened me, not because of the description, but because of the condescending attitude of the shitty ass author who wrote it. Fuck that guy. Now, I think it's likely that he was trying to "be one of the guys" and act as cavalier about death as they had to be He was writing about them, interviewing them, and portraying THEIR story to readers who have no idea what that life is like.

The author, a good author, would take all of that and clarify it, and present it in a way that doesn't change or take away from the experiences and interviews, but makes it feel real and substantial without being cruel about it.

This just did not work for me. And then there's this: "By the girls had begun turning up at Pancho's in amazing numbers. They were young, lovely, juicy, frisky—and there were so many of them, at all hours, every day of the week!

And they were not prostitutes, despite the accusations made later. They were just… well, just young juicy girls in their twenties with terrific young conformations and sweet cupcakes and loamy loins. They were sometimes described with a broad sweep as "stewardesses," but only a fraction of them really were.

No, they were lovely young things who arrived as mysteriously as the sea gulls who sought the squirming shrimp. They were moist labial piping little birds who had somehow learned that at this strange place in the high Mojave lived the hottest young pilots in the world and that this was where things were happening. Fucking gross. That shit probably makes Bill Cosby cringe. That was definitely the worst I Noped out pretty much at that point, but that definitely was not the first time it was pretty gross in the sexism sector.

The incredibly casual sexism of the time was on full display, and I just It wasn't all bad. Chapter 4 was pretty good. I wish I could remember at this point what was IN chapter 4, but after well over a month of this just sitting around I just remembered. It was the chapter in which the pilots were all being tested for the super secret mission, and none of them knew what they were being tested for. At this point they were all just regular jet pilots - nobody had any thought of going to space at all.

Still, I wouldn't recommend anyone NOT read it. I would just forewarn you that you'll want to keep your sickbag handy and your hand on the ejector seat button, as it is likely to get a bit bumpy and you may need to bail out. I would recommend that you keep your seatbelt fastened at all times, and in the event of a drop in cabin pressure resulting in a loss of consciousness, well Wolfe will have described it to you in all its gleeful detail.

Shelves: non-fiction , whip-smart , audiobooks. While listening to Dennis Quaid's narration, I felt as if a gruff stranger had sat beside me at a bar, bought me a pint, and started in on some conspiratorial, you're-not-gonna-believe-it storytelling.

There's definitely an air of the old guard letting you in on the secrets of their exalted reign, and it is a hell of a fun bit of storytelling. Wolfe somehow manages to make the writing seem conversational, dynamic, and filled with life. Quaid does a bang-up job bringing it all to life.

I was pleasantly surprised with the book's overwhelmingly funny stories, or how a reverential, country-wide event took on the aspect of the ordinary to the astronauts. Wolfe's history isn't the lifeless stuff of dusty textbooks, but is instead drenched in beer, revelry, and the unexpected glory of becoming a voyager to the stars. Though you get a sense of time's general trajectory, it is Wolfe's subjects that make the book such a riot.

I did take a while to listen to the book, but that's more of an issue of an overwhelming personal schedule than a comment on my enjoyment of the book. Indeed, I often opted to read another book rather than listen to this one, but I always enjoyed checking in on the righteous brethren. This one is ludicrously fun, interesting, and a must for anyone interested in the history of space flight.

Thanks to Glenn Sumi for putting me on to this one with his stellar review. View all 4 comments. I didn't hate it but this is a case for me where the book did not live up to the movie. Sure there are many MANY more details but for sheer entertainment value? I liked that Yeager played a larger role than he didn't even in the movie and that the book encompasses the Apollo astronauts briefly. There was also much more context given in relation to the geopolitical events of the day and how those impacted the space program.

What I liked less was how long winded it is in certain places with a little too much extraneous detail for my tastes. Then again, I have the attention span of a hummingbird so Good ole Dennis Quaid gave a heck of a performance. Maybe he was overenthusiastic at times but he gave it his all and I appreciate that sort of passion. No offense to Tom Wolfe, but side mouthes the movie's better. Oct 01, Deacon Tom F rated it it was amazing. Without a doubt, one of the best books I have ever read. As a retired USAF officer, I personally related to many of the scenes and the attitudes of fighter pilots.

I was not a fighter pilot but during one of my assignments in Germany, I was honored to be invited into the exclusive Friday night happy hour. We had fun, fun, fun! It is a combination socialogical and history read.

I highly recommend. View 2 comments. Apr 21, Brian Eshleman rated it really liked it. My kind of novel, less plot intricacies and more swimming in the culture of the time, the assumptions and developments of which Tom Wolfe explores at length. He even goes back to connect the status of the Cold War astronaut to the lone warrior who represented the hopes of his entire culture in single combat.

I first read this book about 20 years ago when I was really obsessed with space and convinced that I would one day become an astronaut. The former of those two things has not changed, but I've become much more realistic about the almost zero chance of the latter. I wanted to re-read this book and see how I'd feel now that I'm a pilot and also now that I just have 20 years more life under my belt in general. I recall having really loved this book, and I still really loved this book. It's easy to r I first read this book about 20 years ago when I was really obsessed with space and convinced that I would one day become an astronaut.

It's easy to read, and it's fun to read. I had a hard time putting it down and got resentful of my hairdresser for being ready for me early when I hadn't finished reading a sentence yet. The story of the origins of the space program are compelling, I found myself rooting for all of the test pilots and astronauts in this story, and feeling suspense about events that happened so many years ago that the outcomes are common knowledge at least for space nerds such as myself. This is no exception.

Other reviewers lambast Wolfe for his biased takes on some of the astronauts. I do not take this book to be gospel truth, but a literary interpretation of the events that happened. More importantly, this book is a literary interpretation of the inner workings of test pilots and the first astronauts, hence the title: The Right Stuff.

I have to say, I hate The Right Stuff attitude. The FAA has literally defined some hazardous attitudes such things that can and probably will get you into a possibly life-threatening situation when you're behind the stick and rudder of an aircraft and two of them are: "macho" and "invulnerability.

Not to mention the toxic masculinity that kept and continues to keep women away from aviation and the space program that also caused and continues to cause problems for men. What does it say about you as a man if you can't make it to the top of that pyramid?

Or even half way up? That can't be a fun way to view your worth as a human. I don't fault the book for being about The Right Stuff. It is what it is, I don't hate the book, I just hate the culture that idolizes and worships harmful stereotypes and attitudes. I don't even think that Wolfe idolizes and glorifies this Right Stuff attitude as much as he just spelled out the way things were, and that's just the way things were. I'm grateful that we're slowly moving away from such a flawed outlook toward the understanding that people are humans and we are what we are.

No better book has been written about flying or the space race. Tom Wolfe has what it takes, the bubbling enthusiasm and critical eye, to write properly about astronauts. The Right Stuff is about endurance, guts, reflexes, a cool head, and giant titanium testicles. It's about sitting No better book has been written about flying or the space race. It's about sitting at home, waiting for a call or a knock on the door, saying that your husband's plane is lost and the man you love is nothing more than charred meat.

Most of us don't live in this world, but Wolfe reconstructs how for a few years in the early 60s, with the mighty and infallible Soviet Chief Designer beating the pants out of the American space program, the Mercury Seven became Cosmic Knights, Single Combat Champions of Truth, Justice, and the American Way, and the entire nation became caught up in the saga of The Right Stuff. Wolfe records the contradictions and absurdities of the fighter pilot lifestyle, and how they became tied up with America and the space race, with the utmost respect and tenderness.

A quite good read, but not really what I would expect from Wolfe. The tone is very informal and the narrative almost unstructured conversational.

This makes the first third a bit slow and drawn out as we're repeatedly hammered by the problem with the start of the Mercury program being that the pilot-cum-astronauts would not be required, or even able to, use their flying skills. The race with Russia was full on from the start and the feats being accomplished under their program, with little forew A quite good read, but not really what I would expect from Wolfe.

The race with Russia was full on from the start and the feats being accomplished under their program, with little forewarning or insights, is compared to the "Chief Designer" and the "Integral" of Zamyatin's "We". This is an apt parallel, but awfully tiresome when used times Something happens near the middle of the book though, and when actual space flights and orbital flights start taking place, it's almost unputdownable.

The last part of the book slows down some again, but does have it's definite highlights, such as the "astronaut charm school" teaching such indispensable knowledge as what way your thumbs should be pointed, should you ever put your hands on your hips. Which, as we all know, probably should be avoided altogether. Another great part is the failed Yeager attempt to set a new altitude record for the souped-up version of the F fighter plane.

All in all, should the first third be tightened up some and a few mentions of the "Integral" be removed along with a bunch of exclamation marks! As it is, it's well worth reading. Test pilots have The Right Stuff. Astronauts have The Right Stuff. Thus Tom Wolfe pulls us into Chuck Yeager's world in Muroc in the 's when the sound barrier is about to be broken and segues us into the original Seven - the chosen ones with the righteous, righteous stuff, the first men into space.

Never mind a monkey's gonna make the first flight! Never mind our rockets always blow up! Wolfe goes into detail about the astronauts' lives, the astronauts' wives, the Drinking and Driving, the Drinking and Flying oh, wait, there WAS no flying for these Mercury Seven!

As always with Tom Wolfe, you're there with Yeager in the X-1, you're floundering in the ocean with Gus Grissom, you're looking at the fireflies with John Glenn in Friendship 7, and you're there and just as upset with the chimpanzee receiving the electric shocks in the feet when he screws up.

And you're there when some Friend of Widows and Orphans comes to your door after there's been an accident. I have to give a shout out to local hero Scott Carpenter! Okay, maybe he had a bit too much fun up there in Aurora 7 some controversy surrounds this , but he was well loved here. Also, as an aside, Grissom's capsule was recovered in Unfortunately, still no way to determine if the hatch "just blew".

Interesting read. Recommended if you can handle Tom Wolfe's writing style and can get in the back of the spaceship and peek around front to see what's really happening. With all the moon landing 50th anniversary excitement, The Right Stuff felt like a timely selection. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Dennis Quaid. He definitely seemed to be enjoying himself! Jul 08, Delee marked it as to-read Shelves: pantless-group-read , group-or-buddy-read , non-fiction , stopped-reading-but-will-try-again , so-danwill-shut-up.

I bet you could trick her into opening the door to her boat by using a trained raccoon to create some sorta commotion. Then when she steps over the threshold, grab her arm and twist it behind her back, whil How could I turn down an offer to Buddy-read The Right Stuff- with the Pant-less wonders Then when she steps over the threshold, grab her arm and twist it behind her back, while Licha gives her a few rabbit punches to the kidneys.

Lead her back inside, maybe give her a few swirlies, while asking her who does 2 work for. Then tie her to a chair and get. I'd imagine if you pull out a straight razor, turn on some Stealers Wheel - Stuck in the Middle with You, and start dancing around her chair, she'll agree to anything, right quick!

DMCA and Copyright : The book is not hosted on our servers, to remove the file please contact the source url. If you see a Google Drive link instead of source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed. Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to non fiction, history lovers.

Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download. Hot Dont Sweat the Small Stuff Great book, The Right Stuff pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone.