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A Novel. A witty, biting history of modern architecture that started 50 years ago with the Bauhaus Boys, whose international style of architecture made our office buildings into glass-and-steel boxes, our art galleries look like garages and our schools look like shopping centers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Amusing and Clever
I am apparently getting really good at randomly picking up books that few people have reviewed. I picked this one up randomly which seems appropriate.

I found this and put it up on top of my monitor. It's a small book and is about architecture and I glanced inside and decided it was worth the time to read it. I picked it up yesterday and started through the 126 pages.

Wolfe is a clever writer. In this book he talks a lot about the architecture schools of the first half of the twentieth century. He goes forward from there and discusses them with biting humor and satire.

Wolfe's writing is sarcastic but seeks to stick to modern given definitions. "Bauhaus" looks at the way modern architecture is a response to the bourgeois. The way the Bauhaus saw bourgeois, it was a dirty word. It is used as an epithet throughout the book.

Merriam Webster defines bourgeois as:

1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of the townsman or of the social middle class

2 : marked by a concern for material interests and respectability and a tendency toward mediocrity

3 : dominated by commercial and industrial interests : capitalistic

The Bauhaus sought to run away from the bourgeois, but with Wolfe's description of bourgeois, the architecture schools seem to embrace it on many levels.

The book is dominated by the evolution of architectural "compounds" such as that founded by Walter Gropius in Germany in the Bauhaus school. The concept of the "group" drove out the individual response to innovation which reminds me so strongly of my very favorite book The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. The similarities to Rand's text and the actualities promoted by the Bauhaus group as detailed by Wolfe are disconcerting. The comparison between the two is my own opinion, not that of Wolfe.

The Bauhaus group fled Germany because of the great war and came to American where they were established quickly as the shining light of modern design. Gropius himself is referred to as The Silver Prince. Wolfe's narrative talks about the self absorption of these architects and their ability to shove their concept of what was good down the throats of anyone who wanted to build something special. According to Wolfe, American architecture put itself inside the unornamented "box" of modernist thought.

Wolfe does not pull punches. He runs riot over the schools of architecture that want to pull meaning away from original and individual thought and give impetus to the group. Wolfe uses much sarcasm to show that the Modernists are as guilty of conforming as those they accuse.

This book laments the loss of beaux-arts crafting and ornamentation. They are casualties because they serve the individual rather than society as a whole.

The Bauhaus draws much of its early success from "public housing projects." These buildings seem to lean toward the lowest common denominator. Promoting clean lines, the buildings also seem to promote a monotony and cheapness. Anyone who disagreed with this "groupthink" would be accused of the heinous crime of being bourgeois.

If one looks at American architecture prior to the 1980's one will see the "boxes" so loved by the modernists. How many of us have looked at the tall glass boxes in modern cities and wondered "How hard was that to design?"

Wolfe details some of the conflict between Gropius and friends who were European imports and Frank Lloyd Wright who was a truly American invention. In this book there are quite a few photographs. One of them is of Frank Lloyd Wright's "Robie House." It looks so cutting edge modern, and when I checked the date I was astonished to find that it is a hundred years old. How cool is that?

The book evolves into a philosophical and semantic discussion that loses its edge toward the end. There is some celebration of the newer generation of architects that dared defy The Silver Prince and company. Philip Johnson and Richard Meier (architect of the Getty Museum) are discussed as the young rabble rousers who defy the Modernists but still ascribe to many of their virtues.

This text is challenging. It assumes that the reader has some knowledge of architecture and architectural history. I'm fortunate in that. I teach Art History so I didn't have to struggle to make a lot of connections.

Why you see so many ugly buildings
As you drive through your city, certain blocks seem bleak, don't they? This book exposes why those ugly buildings got built. Wolfe explains the dynasty that coerced architects, company executives, and city planners into a drab simplicity with a political agenda.
While the architecture under discussion has passed, I recommend this book for activists who fight ugly real estate development in their neighborhood nests. ... Read more

Product Description
Some years ago Tom wrote a book called Carving the Civil War. The book met with great success, but left a hunger for more. One of the figures in the gallery was a beautiful realistic horse, and it wasn't long before requests for a horse book started coming in. Well, here it is! Tom brings his teaching and carving skills to realistic horses. This new book takes the carvers through the steps of carving a frisky colt. Using hand and power tools Tom creates the form, detail, and musculature that brings the horse to life. Included are gallery photos and patterns for the colt's sibling and sire, as well as those for several other horses. For fans of Tom Wolfe or those who have struggled to carve realistic horses, this book is a must-have for your carving library. ... Read more

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When the well-known wood carver, Tom Wolfe, turns his talents to a new medium the results are wonderful. The almost limitless medium of polymer clay and Toms eye for character and caricature combine to produce some endearing and delightful creatures. For years Tom has been using clays as a modeling tool for his wood carving. At the same time, though, he has created some characters in clay that are just meant to stay that way. The polymer clay comes in a variety of colors and can be shaped in almost any way imaginable. For those thousands of hobbyists and artists who use polymer clay, this new book will open new doors of expression. So, for woodcarvers and clay modelers alike, this is a welcome new book. Fully illustrated with beautiful color photographs, it takes the modeler step-by-step through the process of creating a male and a female caricature bust. A gallery will spur the imagination even further. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

These Caricatures are not Endearing!
Mr. Wolfe's caricatures are gross exaggerations of the human form and may not appeal to potential doll or figure sculpters.They are remarkable specifically because they are so grotesque!Mr. Wolfe does give severalhints that would benefit dollmakers - create a concave hole in the end ofan appropriately-sized dowel to sculpt eyeballs directly in the face clay,or to hold a separately created eyeball in position for adhering to theface clay. I'm glad I read through the book, but it's not one I intend tokeep as reference material. ... Read more

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The most ambitious carving Tom has ever presented in a book, this may also be the most charming. Tom leads the carver step-by-step through the process of constructing and carving a kids size rocking horse. This is the perfect project for a Christmas present that will be cherished generation after generation. And even though it is ambitious, the instructions and illustrations will enable even the novice carver to complete a work of which they can be proud. The book covers every step from cutting the lumber through carving, assembling, and painting. Measured drawings are included as is a pattern for a smaller toy version of the rocking horse. ... Read more

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In the 1960s and the 1970s Tom Wolfe rose to fame as a chronicler of the gaudiest period in American history. It began at a hot-rod custom-car show where he marvelled at the little nest of pink angora angel's-hair used for the purpose of "glamorous" display. It grew - with his fascination for the Las Vegas-style neon-sculpture boom and its electro-pastel surge through the suburbs - into "the kandy-kolored tangerine - flake streamline baby" and the new journalism was born. Wolfe's innovations in style, his feats as a reporter and his insights into sections of America which now had the money to build monuments to their enthusiasms, dominated a period of widespread experimentaiton in the writing of non-fiction. This book describes this period in Wolfe's life. ... Read more

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A Man in Full is packed with the sort of splendid set pieces we’ve come to expect from Wolfe. A quail hunt on Charlie’s 29,000-acre plantation, a stuffed-shirt evening at the symphony, a politically loaded press conference the author assembles these scenes with infectious delight. The book is also very, very funny. The law firms, like the upper-crust powerhouse Fogg Nackers Rendering & Lean, are straight out of Dickens, and Wolfe brings even his minor characters, like professional hick Opey McCorkle, to vivid life.

Blurb in Spanish:El mundo de Charlie Croker se desmorona: en la cima del mayor imperio inmobiliario de Atlanta, solicita en un arranque de megalomanía un crédito bancario que no puede pagar. Además, con 60 años recien cumplidos y una segunda esposa de apenas 28 años, este hombre, hecho a sí mismo, empieza a detectar los primeros signos de la vejez.

Perseguido por la entidad bancaria que antes lo adulaba y que ahora empieza a acosarle, Croker deberá recorrer un largo calvario durante el cual se verá vinculado a otras dos personajes principales: Roger White II, un abogado negro amigo de la infancia del alcalde de Atlanta, y Conrad Hensley, un joven honesto que trabaja en una fábrica de congelados propiedad de Charlie y que resiste como un estoico los embates de la vida. ... Read more

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A collection of rock and pop journalism containing 40 articles from over 40 years of music. Articles included are Stephen Davies's report of Led Zeppelin's antics with groupies, the death of Kurt Cobain, and Danny Baker's interview with Michael Jackson. ... Read more