No, really, I have to thank you for making me google "loamy loins" (three pages where it appears without reference to Wolfe), whereby I found this page.
Meet Mark Cunningham-Bodysurfing Domo and Pipeline's Most Ardent Paramour. Mark Cunningham lusts in his heart. He is a fallen monk of the sea. From his splintered orange lifeguard throne, he has flushed at the sight of all these lithe young sea nymphs-a collection of surfer babes, local bodyboard girls, and strippers on day leave from their nightly strutting at Femme Nu. An endless pavan of gorgeous thong-wearing sirens from around the world-Polynesian, European, Indonesian, American, Latin. Each one with loamy loins and shanks hand-basted by God. Strolling, shifting, smiling. Must give a man pause. He imagines the most twisted things. He imagines... dressing them up.
later...
Cunningham, through osmosis or genetics, has subtly mutated through years of saltwater immersion into genus Homme-Delphine; part man, mostly dolphin. His wave sense is instinctual, effortless, using his whole body as a sense organ to tap into the wave's energy. To watch Cunningham ride is to watch him make love to the ocean.
Unf, if you like Wolfe on observational realism grounds, you may enjoy "Clockers" by Richard Prince. Back in the (relative) salad days of "Man in Full," Wolfe tabbed Prince as one of the novelists who he felt was doing realism well. Clockers is notably less funny than Bonfire, but then, what isn't?
Earlier Wolfe is (for me, being a young un) Bonfire. Though maybe I should try Wolfe earlier than that (on the theory that his decline only started with Man in Full).
I think I read something by Prince once. Kind of liked it, if I remeber correctly. It wasn't Clockers - which I saw in theaters and consider to be one of Spike Lee's best works.
And let's not encourage any more use of "loamy loins". That and "declivity" drive me around the bend.
Early Wolfe is the Right Stuff - and I mean that literally. Chuck Yeager punching holes in the sky. Setting a standard for American Studies that few have even attempted to meet.
Have you cracked Infinite Jest? Bandbox? Life of Pi? I hven't read the last, but my wife swears by it. Chabon? Both Kavalier and Clay and Wonderboys are worth a read.
Or, for a different type of American Studies, I read Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo at the beach this year.
But thinking about what is Wolfish, therre is some Don Delillo that may well be a match. White Noise after all depicts a professor of Hitler studies....
And there is something Wolfish about Infinite Jest not in form but in the way it looks at AA.
Is earlier "Bonfire" or earlier non-fiction "Electric Kool-Aid"?
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 3:02 PM
Who are you, and how did you get on this blog?
No, really, I have to thank you for making me google "loamy loins" (three pages where it appears without reference to Wolfe), whereby I found this page.
later...
Fantastic.
Posted by ogged | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 3:05 PM
Unf, if you like Wolfe on observational realism grounds, you may enjoy "Clockers" by Richard Prince. Back in the (relative) salad days of "Man in Full," Wolfe tabbed Prince as one of the novelists who he felt was doing realism well. Clockers is notably less funny than Bonfire, but then, what isn't?
Posted by baa | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 3:17 PM
Earlier Wolfe is (for me, being a young un) Bonfire. Though maybe I should try Wolfe earlier than that (on the theory that his decline only started with Man in Full).
I think I read something by Prince once. Kind of liked it, if I remeber correctly. It wasn't Clockers - which I saw in theaters and consider to be one of Spike Lee's best works.
And let's not encourage any more use of "loamy loins". That and "declivity" drive me around the bend.
Posted by unf | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 4:20 PM
Robertson Davies - The Cornish Trilogy
Anthony Burgess - The Complete Enderby
Christopher Moore - Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Posted by apostropher | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 4:29 PM
"loamy loins" sounds like something requiring antibiotics.
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 4:40 PM
I just finished Drop City (T.C. Boyle). He sets a hippy communion on a collision course with alaska survivalists and it's fun to watch.
Posted by cw | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 5:14 PM
I note with some amusement that Unf's first entry on this blog concludes with the expression of a now-familiar sentiment:
Indeed.
Posted by FL | Link to this comment | 01-10-05 5:54 PM
Story of my life, my friend.
Posted by unf | Link to this comment | 01-11-05 8:53 AM
Early Wolfe is the Right Stuff - and I mean that literally. Chuck Yeager punching holes in the sky. Setting a standard for American Studies that few have even attempted to meet.
Have you cracked Infinite Jest? Bandbox? Life of Pi? I hven't read the last, but my wife swears by it. Chabon? Both Kavalier and Clay and Wonderboys are worth a read.
Or, for a different type of American Studies, I read Lonesome Dove and Streets of Laredo at the beach this year.
Posted by Anonymous | Link to this comment | 01-11-05 9:28 PM
Oops. Once again, that was me up there.
Posted by benton | Link to this comment | 01-11-05 9:29 PM
But thinking about what is Wolfish, therre is some Don Delillo that may well be a match. White Noise after all depicts a professor of Hitler studies....
And there is something Wolfish about Infinite Jest not in form but in the way it looks at AA.
Posted by benton | Link to this comment | 01-11-05 10:17 PM