HOOKING UP

Trendy intellectual drivel of the new century is presented with convincing middle-brow eloquence by the bestselling dandy of "new journalism." Part reportage, part essays, these articles cover the latest news to reach the author in the fields of biological, social, and informational science. Always a lively, albeit untrustworthy, read, Wolfe is not always a good listen. His flat voice needs his personal presence before a live audience to rise to the level of his writing. Fortunately (and inexplicably), after delivering some criticism of his critics, he bows out in favor of Ron Rifkin. This fine actor is not on sure ground here, fuddling through some of Wolfe's less felicitous locutions, but by and large gives us the vivid momentum that the text demands. Y.R. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 01]