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Title: Funny, but shallow
Review: I used to live in New York City, so I thought Tom Wolfe was right on target in describing its politics and different social scenes, and satirizing them. However, I couldn't relate to any of the characters; they were far too stereotypical and not enough like real people for my taste. You had your token Irish cops and pols, your token Italian pol/mafiosos, your token Upper West Side Jewish intellectual lawyers, and your token doofus WASP stockbrokers and socialites. I wouldn't be surprised if some people found these depictions insulting. Maybe I'm personalizing this, but it's also almost as if Wolfe is saying that if you don't fit any of these stereotypes, you can never be a true "hip" New Yorker. I would have found this book more interesting had the characters been much more complex.
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