Has the World Grown Too Insane for Wolfe--Or is There Hope?(Thomas Wolfe‪)‬

The early twenty-first century marks a period of tremendous change that poses big challenges for people who care about keeping alive the discussion and study of Thomas Wolfe and literature in general. Part of the change is sparked by technology, but it doesn't end there. The changes go deep into our culture's tastes, individual readers' habits, the ways readers choose to process information, even the ways readers' brains are changing without their realizing it. The shifts in the ways people read pose a challenge not only for the survival of the genre of the novel in general, but for Wolfe's type of novel in particular--the sprawling, big book that invites the reader to dive in and stay awhile, take your time, dig deeply into the lives of these memorable characters, and let your own life fade away for a time. In many ways, Wolfe's work remains as relevant for this generation as it has for any other. There are still few writers who so vividly capture what it feels like to be alive. Who better portrays the torment and the joy of being young? Who better brings to life the early twentieth century in America? Who else writes characters as memorable as W. O. Gant, Eliza Gant, Eugene Gant, George Webber, Esther Jack, and dozens of others? Who writes more thrillingly on nighttime in America, the million-footed city, a train ride, college life, the writer's life, the Civil War, the impact of the stock market crash on small-town America, ambition, fame, love, grief, the experience of an American in Europe, the complications of family life, race relations, or the South?