Would you try another book from Tom Wolfe and/or Lou Diamond Phillips?
Yes....but not for a while....it got me interested, kept up some good suspense, but was monotonous in it shrillness and lack of character development. Could not decide which was more racist, Tom's own attempts to portray people of different race's thought process (or lack thereof), and dialogue in fact make the book ironically seem like a view into the author's own clear cultural bias and outright racism and sexism.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Magdalena- I did see some aspects of the problems faced by Latinas (yes only in America is that word used Tom- one of your better points) who enter into American culture as defined in the way Tom does, as less of a melting pot and more of a pot full of metal utensils that never do get to melting, just clanking into one another without much chance of more than some casual interplay. However. she is the only character who I feel expresses what seem to be "real" feelings that I have seen in my own life's experience as a person who is married to someone from South America (but who came to the US in her teens not born here, as Magdalena certainly was). Mr. Wolfe's zest for "keeping it real" and using dialogue and characters he has learned to create from his life's research, seem to show an appalling lack of insight into the actual cultures he deals with, rather he has a very surface, caricature like view of almost every race he describes, sadly.
Which character – as performed by Lou Diamond Phillips – was your favorite?
Nestor, as the only really decent person in the novel (Magdalena is decent but her failings lie in her humanity and social climbing). Mr. Phillips reading of Nestor seems pretty true to character, and while Mr. Phillips joins Mr. Wolf in going overboard in some of the just awful stereotyped language, ebonics, absurdly thick Russian accents, and attitudes...Nestor is mostly a breath of fresh air whom Mr. Phillips really may enjoy acting the part of. There may find one of two characters that are given that we can hold on to and like, but never really understand.
Do you think Back to Blood needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
Well, it certainly ended much more quickly than I expected so rather than a follow up I would have liked to seen more resolution to the lives of the characters, especially, Gislain and her father, and even Nestor and Magdalena.
Sure the major plot lines and some loose ends are tied up nicely (not that it was hard to predict the outcomes from the beginning).
Given their utility in fairly isolated parts of the story one could argue that characters, like Gislain (the Hatian girl with the "white face"), and her brother and dad, were mainly tossed in so as not to leave out a major community in the Miami area,. not that any race is spared any more than the Simpsons spares stereotyping every ethnic and social group it gets its hands one, but I don't think Mr. Wolf sought to be like an unfunny version of a Simpsons movie.
The weak coverage of the thought processes the oh so narrow minded parents of the heroes/heroines in the book, seem to be a big part of the reason for the books seming total lack of grasp into the main character's inner dialogue being so vapid and only ego focused. The experiences that make people who they are in the book are largely left to the sweeping generalizations that the book seems to be wishing did not exist (or does it?). It is about race, but certainly never delves into much more than to scratch of the surface and the stereotypical behaviors we have come to see in our media, and sadly novels like this when they give lip service to Latin/Spanish Americans (yes only in America do we have that word), African Americans, Haitians, and even the poor rich WASPS that Mr. Wolf loves to hate (self loathing?)....alas Tom, time for some meditation in the mountains I think...or is it too late, maybe a road trip with Further (what remains of the Grateful Dead touring groups).? Left me a bit cold, but entertained at least...that Normal laugh witll never leave you-Thanks Lou Diamond Phillips for nailing that laugh!
Any additional comments?
I thought that Tom Wolf, who's last book I read, and loved, was "The Elektric Kool-Aid Acid Test (yes it speaks poorly of my keeping up with the times of Mr. Wolf), did not pick up much from what I felt he surely must have learned from his time living and writing in one of the most iconic of times, the Haight-Ashbury/Grateful Dead/Merry Prankster explosion onto the world scene from the innocent and greatly characterized small group of people that Tom was privileged to spend a great deal of time with. That book suffered a lot less from lack of understanding its characters, but then again he spoke of real people in that book and therefore he understood his characters. Tom seems to have devolved from the man who wrote that book, his disdain for social climbing, the so called "elite" and apparent dislike (or is it an embrace with a pained look on his face) seems to remain, but one can not help feel that Tom is as in touch with his inner feelings and those of his characters ad as his most heinous character in his book, Norman (is there really a psychiatrist whose sole specialty is pornography addiction?). It is hard to not fall into this story and find\ oneself enjoying it, but having it read to you really brings home even further, just how troublingly racist the book itself seems, unintentionally or intentionally-politicl correctness is not necessary but when one feels like they have to look around the room to be sure nobody hear's them listening to narration of a book, well its problematic IMHO. Decent story, hard to like prose, and hard to like characters...hence hard to like author (In spite of his many gifts)?
