Over the years Tom Wolfe has set his original mind to caustic descriptions of people who have done much to nurse along American self-denigration…. In the process he has produced some of the most brilliant social criticism to see print, and allied himself with the defenders of this country….

Wolfe's formidable literary virtues are at work in [The Right Stuff], providing every bit of the graceful language that is always his strong suit, and, better, rendering a portrait of true old-fashioned American heroism. (p. 85)

Reviewers of [The Right Stuff] while offering its author indisputably well-deserved praise, have consistently—and with good reason—neglected to come to terms with its real point. And that is that far from being a celebration of the astronauts, The Right Stuff is as denigrating a portrait of them as may ever have been rendered. Wolfe would have us believe that the honor that...