Audiobook Review: The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: February 6, 2018 (Published in print in 1979)
Narrator: Dennis Quaid
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Millions of words have poured forth about man’s trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure: namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves – in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts, that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers that made The Right Stuff a classic.

The Right Stuff is a non-fiction account of the origin of the United States space program and the space race against the Soviet Union. It starts in the 1940s and goes up through the Mercury project. This book is chock-full of detailed information about airplanes and spacecraft. A lot of it went over my head – I found myself drifting off when listening to those parts. However, I was still able to grasp the timeline of events and the broad strokes of what was happening. I was hoping there would be more about the personal lives about the various astronauts, especially the stars like John Glenn and Alan Shepard.

The Right Stuff is narrated by Dennis Quaid. His tone is very man’s man – perfect for the way this book is written. However, he needs to work on his accents! Luckily, he didn’t need to use one very often.

I think this book would appeal to techies who are looking for detailed information about the rise of the space program up through our first orbital launch. Unfortunately, that person is not me.

(I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook for review.)