NEW YORK — Lukewarm reviews of Tom Wolfe’s “I Am Charlotte Simmons” didn’t depress the turnout at the Neue Galerie on Monday night, where a party for Wolfe drew, among others, Tom Brokaw, Ahmet Ertegun, Don Hewitt, Tina Brown and Jann Wenner. Wolfe’s latest book, which follows an innocent from the hills of North Carolina to the fictional and salacious Dupont University, had many at the event reminiscing about their own college experiences.
“I flunked out of college,” said “60 Minutes” creator Hewitt. “I went to work for the Herald Tribune as a copy boy in 1942.”
“Today Show” contributor Mo Rocca recalled learning about the opposite sex while still at Harvard. “I lived [in a dorm] connected to a suite of eight women,” said Rocca. “College for me was like a tsunami of estrogen.”
As for the man of the hour’s exploits during his undergrad days at Washington & Lee, Wolfe said, “Oh, there were so many. How could I possibly remember them all? You know how it is when you’re young and cavalier.”
It’s the young and cavalier part that has Tina Brown concerned. “I have a daughter of 14,” she said, “and I’m kind of horrified by the picture he paints [in ‘Charlotte Simmons’]. I have to say, I’m terribly freaked out. I realize I have her whole education ahead of me.”