The three best books to read by Tom Wolfe (now more than ever) - Grand Goldman 2026

Tom Wolfe passed away in New York at the age of 88, as a result of pneumonia. We lose the man considered the father of New Journalism (alongside Truman Capote) and also a fiction author who frequently topped the bestseller lists. In times of influencers, fake news, political and economic corruption, and dizzying changes in the field of information, it is worth reading Wolfe, reviewing his career and what he represented. And three good examples to do so are three of his most well-known works:

The Bonfire of the Vanities

The Bonfire of the Vanities is the first of the four novels Wolfe wrote throughout his career. Published in 1987, it is perhaps the best example of the love-hate relationship the author felt for his city, New York, throughout his entire life. It is also a perfect portrait, full of satire and criticism, of Manhattan society in the 1980s, represented by the great Wall Street executives, that high society that believed itself all-powerful and which the novel's twists and turns also show to be vulnerable.

A Man in Full

Wolfe took more than ten years, after The Bonfire of the Vanities and the success brought by its film adaptation, to return to writing fiction. It was with A Man in Full, in which he again touches on the theme of the boundless ambition of the powerful, although this time the action moves to Atlanta, the great capital of the southern United States, and addresses racial conflicts, as well as other recurring themes in his narrative such as the corruption of power, the ostentation of wealth, and the fall from the top of those who believe they have everything.

The New Journalism

But if Tom Wolfe will go down in history for anything, it is for his essays and his influence on the history of journalism. The New Journalism is probably the best compilation of his thinking, as well as essential reading for those dedicated to information sciences. Wolfe includes an anthology of texts by recognized authors to support his thesis that New Journalism has wrested its place as a literary genre from the traditional novel, immersing both reader and author in the narrated events.

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