The Right Stuff

The book begins with the test pilots, above all Chuck Yeager, who broke the sound barrier in 1947 and became a legend among his fellow flyers. Then, when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite and the space race began, America chose seven military pilots as its first astronauts. Overnight they became national heroes, followed by reporters and cheered by crowds, before they had flown anywhere at all.

Wolfe follows the Mercury Seven through training, rivalry and their first flights, and he gives equal attention to their wives, who lived with constant fear and public scrutiny. He writes in a lively, conversational style full of exclamation marks and inner voices, which some readers love and others find exhausting. The dangers of test flying are described honestly, including the many pilots who died. The book inspired the 1983 film of the same name.

Funny, vivid and moving, a classic of narrative nonfiction. Readers who enjoy it often go on to other books about the space age, and many find it changes how they think about courage and fame. About 368 pages in the Picador paperback.