Back to Blood

A Novel

By: Tom Wolfe

Narrated by: Lou Diamond Phillips

Length: 20 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

A big, panoramic story of the new America, as told by our master chronicler of the way we live now.

As a police launch speeds across Miami's Biscayne Bay - with officer Nestor Camacho on board - Tom Wolfe is off and running. Into the feverous landscape of the city, he introduces the Cuban mayor; the black police chief; a wanna-go-muckraking young journalist and his Yale-marinated editor; an Anglo sex-addiction psychiatrist and his Latina nurse by day, loin lock by night - until lately, the love of Nestor's life; a refined, and oh-so-light-skinned young woman from Haiti and her Creole-spouting, black-gang-banger-stylin' little brother; a billionaire porn addict; crack dealers in the 'hoods; "de-skilled" conceptual artists at the Miami Art Basel Fair; "spectators" at the annual Biscayne Bay regatta looking only for that night's orgy; yenta-heavy ex-New Yorkers at an "Active Adult" condo; and a nest of shady Russians.

Based on the same sort of detailed, on-scene, high-energy reporting that powered Tom Wolfe's previous best-selling novels, Back to Blood is another brilliant, spot-on, scrupulous, and often hilarious reckoning with our times.

©2012 Tom Wolfe (P)2012 Hachette

Wolfe at his best

The full panoply of human folly is on display as only Wolfe can do--greed, envy, lust, petty self-interest, tribalism, hubris. Phillips' narration is superb.

Classic Wolfe excellent narration

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this one to someone looking for an engaging listen. There isn't much in Back to Blood that you haven't seen in Wolfe's other recent books like Man in Full or I am Charlotte Simmons in terms of scope or structure. The characters are fairly flat in this one and some (especially the psychologist) just seem to dangle for no reason.

That said, it's Tom Wolfe so there is a great panorama and sense of time and place as he describes the high rollers of Miami.

Lastly, the production value in this one is among the best I've ever heard. Loved the musical interludes. Nice touch.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Back to Blood?

Probably the description of Flishman's twin herpes and masturbation issues. Nobody describes puss like Wolfe.

What about Lou Diamond Phillips’s performance did you like?

He really get into the different parts and makes good use of Wolfe's signature punctuation and description. His Cuban Spanish accents are believable without going way over the top.

Worth a listen, but . . .

Any additional comments?

This is mostly a compelling read/listen. The story and subplots are captivating and the characters are well-drawn. As always, Wolfe is a provocative thinker and writer who has a fresh way of looking at old, seemingly settled aspects of American life and culture. So, definitely would recommend.

My only hesitation is a growing impatience with Wolfe's writing style -- the Electric Kool-Aid schtick that was innovative in the '70s, and still refreshing in the '90s, but now is more distracting and annoying than illuminating, like a monotonous drumbeat. Perhaps that comment simply shows my age, but Wolfe's stories with, say, Elmore Leonard's sparse story-telling would be a terrific combination.

Heroics, crime, humor and sex in sizzling Miami

What was one of the most memorable moments of Back to Blood?

It's hard to beat the opening event--a daring rescue by our protagonist, Officer Nestor Camacho.

What does Lou Diamond Phillips bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Lou Diamond Phillips is remarkable in the expressiveness of his voice. His command of accents ranges from Cuban to Russian to Long Island to redneck. Without his carefully differentiated portrayals of the characters, Back to Blood would not have been nearly as much fun.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I was moved by the inner voice of Magdalena, a Cuban nurse who aspires to raise her status and to socialize with the rich and famous people of Miami, but who deeply feels prejudice and condescension coming from some of the rich folk.

Any additional comments?

I really cared about the characters, and I enjoyed Tom Wolfe's prose and dialogue, so beautifully performed by Lou Diamond Phillips.

Performance is priceless

Lou Diamond Phillips is the best narrator I’ve had ever heard on any audiobook ever !
The rest is a typical Wolf salad of characters and disjointed events keeping you hoping for something to happen but little does and eventually the book mercifully comes to a whimpering end.

Disappointing

Not as good as his previous books. Quite boring but it was very well read though.

Classic Wolfe

I was so worried Tom Wolfe would not produce the same masterful social commentary that he so amazingly spins in Charlotte Simmons, Bonfire and Man in Full but he does in Back to Blood. I was a little disappointed with the ending but other than that, it's classic Tom Wolfe. Lou Diamond Phillips is phenomenal...very good casting.

Spectacular! Is That Clear Enough?

First off, there are no better performers in this genre than Lou Diamond Phillips. He is a genius. Okay... now for what he performed...

Since listening to Back To Blood, I have read the reviews. Apparently the NYT, Boston Globe, New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Washington Post, and on and on... Seemed bent on dismissing this book. The kind of catty poseurs who Wolfe undresses in his books seemed to have struck a consensus.... "Well," they smear. "We've read this book before. Every since Bonfire of the Vanities, Wolfe has played the same old note revealing what he seems to think is the dysfunctional culture of the cultural elite." And of course each of these reviewers and publications represent the 'cultural elite.' Yet instead of criticizing Wolf'e arguments, they dismiss him as 'old news'. Hmmmm... I wonder if, by this reasoning any of those publications should ever run with another rape story - since after the first - all are old news. Or should they publish/broadcast/post another corruption story, or for that matter, another brittle praise for a naked new artist clothed only in the superlatives that their 'critics' layer over this month's darling?

Yep, Wolfe goes farther and deeper in Back To Blood in his riposte and ridicule of the asininities of the cognoscenti, the PC crowd, and the literary, art, political, and publishing elite. Worse ye,t for these reviewers, Wolfe is entertaining... his work, unlike most which they endorse, has the power to communicate its message to a broad swath of the public. Wolfe' worse sin is his power to resonate.

And Back To Blood resonates with the same sort of gong as the great social critics of the 20s, 30s, and 40s rang as the revealed the emptiness of the pretentious elites of their moment (does the name Gatsby resonate here?). This is today's great American Novel and should be read as part of an ongoing and deepening exposé along with Bonfire Of The Vanities, A Man In Full, and I Am Charlotte Simmons. John Updike once dismissed Wolfe as "an entertainer" and not a creator of literature. And there is a very real danger that Updike's trifling cocktail favorite but so... so... tame works will be remembered because of their cultural safety, while Wolfe will be kept off of the required reading lists with which we train and grow our literati.

Back To Blood is a great novel. It demands a spot on the same shelf as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Upton Sinclair,Sinclair Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Arthur Koestler, John Steinbeck, and Joseph Heller, John O'Hara, and Robert Penn Warren. Actually this entire series of Wolfe's books should be thought of as one work... each deepening the reader's understanding of a time and place in America's history and stagnation.

European elitists have often dismissed America as a place that passed from barbarism to decadence without ever experiencing civilization. To the degree that they are correct, Wolfe's revealing the pathway and the facilitators ... the enablers. What's particularly interesting though is that the ensemble of actors in Wolfe's epic, multi-novel drama. may be much too familiar to the very European cognoscenti who so easily condescend their American cousins.

Lou Diamond Phillips - Ace of Narration

This is a very cool, funny, and clever book. I can tell you 100% honestly, that I read it twice. The second time was for the great narration, subtle music, and cause it's awesome.

It will entertain you. Oh yeah, it has a great author too, the Great Tom Wolfe.

Genius book - Bad Spanish in Voice

If you could sum up Back to Blood in three words, what would they be?

Tom Wolfe Genius

What other book might you compare Back to Blood to and why?

Bonfire of the Vanities - same hilariously insidious sadistic approach to character development - utterly impossible to put down - jokes within jokes wrapped in jokes in every paragraph. If you read the same paragraph 12 times, you'll double over laughing for 12 different reasons - it reads like a knife through butter but every sentence is densely packed.

What three words best describe Lou Diamond Phillips’s voice?

Strong, Bad Spanish

If you could take any character from Back to Blood out to dinner, who would it be and why?

have to think about that one

Any additional comments?

My point in writing this is to encourage Audible to get a different narration - even if by the same guy - Phillips is excellent but fails fatally in one absolutely critical area: Cuban Spanish. Spanish in general, actually. For example, an important character goes to a Cuban gym called "Ññññññño, Qué Gym!", which is short for "Coño! What a gym!". "Coño" is like saying "whoa!" is English, but a bit more profane. You pronounce ño like this "nyo". But Phillips says "no". Now, I'm not Cuban and I'm not an expert in Spanish and I had hoped to benefit from hearing all of the Spanish in this book pronounced with a proper Miami Cuban accent, but EVERY GRINGO who knows the slightest thing about Cuba knows that it's nyo, not no! Everybody says ñññño all the time. It was practically the first thing I learned to say when I was in Cuba. If he gets THIS wrong, everything is suspect, and sure enough, a few pages later he says "DEE os me oh" instead of "dyos me oh" for "my god". This is not a Cubanism. It's just plain old "my God". In any Spanish dialect it's gonna be "dyos me oh" - one syllable on Dios. Again, EVERYBODY says "ay dios mío" (oh my god) over and over and over. If you can say "dee os me oh" and not hear that it sound wrong ... that's not good.

So, in summary, Tom Wolfe might be the greatest writer of fiction of the last century and this book is another stunning example of his art - it just needs a more authentic narration. It's too bad because in every other way Phillips is eminently listenable. I'd give him at least 4 stars if not for the horrendous errors in Spanish.