I watched the movie Genius about Thomas Wolfe and the writing of this book several years ago. So, I have always been curious about it.
It is autobiographical. What a messed up life! What a materialistic mother and alcoholic, dreamer father. What a brilliant writer. I was engaged the whole time.
Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:
Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe's pioneering autobiographical first novel, is set in a town called Altamont, a thinly disguised version of Asheville, North Carolina; it follows the fortunes of Eugene Gant from his difficult birth through childhood, adolescence, sexual awakening, university days, to finally a career as a writer. In ornate, often breathtaking, sometimes unbearably intense prose—in which “the minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time”—Wolfe spins an almost mythic tale about hating a home you will long for only after you leave, and about forging a career as an artist in defiance of family expectation. Wolfe gave voice to an American experience that had not yet been put down in prose, driven by a sense of purpose both quixotic and noble.
