“Ten years after the American moon landing — 20 since Sputnik 1 — astronauts and space-race lore have receded enough into the past to warrant rethinking. Tom Wolfe tells the early space story as if it were myth, and it is.”

“Everybody wanted to know where Tom Wolfe had sprung from, this brilliantly talented, seemingly ubiquitous, altogether mysteriously third-person journalist”

“I think ‘Acid Test’ is a great book, certainly the best to come out of the ’60s… But there is something more: ‘Acid Test’ is about the whole sticky problem of optimism.”

This is Peter Schjeldahl’s first column as the Voice’s senior art critic.