Rating: 
Summary: This Horse Pulls Up Lame Before The Finish Line
Review: An ambitious undertaking, Tom Wolfe's novel starts by introducing several, very distinct characters, and expertly weaving their stories together. The complex storyline keeps you guessing, blending suspense and humor. Wolfe has populated a world with memorable characters (Cap'm Charlie Croker & his trophy wife, Serena, Conrad, Roger Too White, Ray Peepgass and so many others), that will live on in the reader's memory. Turpmtine Plantation feels like a very real place. Then, with the suddenness of a car wreck, the story lurches to an awkward and disappointing conclusion. It's a crying shame that Wolfe tries to wrap up an over 700-page novel in one chapter using a two-way Q&A conversation. A tremendous let-down...
Rating: 
Summary: A "6" On A Scale Of "1 thru 5"
Review: What an accomplishment! To write a story that ties together: Charles Croker, a 60 y.o. Atlanta real estate broker who is in danger of losing his billion dollar fortune; Conrad Hensley, an idealistic, laid-off follower of the Stoic, Epicetus; Fareek Fanon, an Afro-American college football star alleged to have raped the daughter of Iman Armholster, a leader of the white community; and Roger Too White an Afro-American lawyer on the rise. Throw in a variety of other uniquely described stereotypical characters and you have the ingedients for a masterpiece. Read with enthusiasm and slow enough to savor the descriptions of people, places, things and situations, this book ranks right up there with the best. The teachings of Epicetus and the feelings of Charlie, who at 60 questions the meaning of his life were particularly relevant and powerful. I will often refer back to this story and read a page or two just to get a chuckle and see the beauty of the English language in the hands of a brilliant wordsmith. Postscript: If you have the opportunity to listen to the audio tape you won't be disappointed. Ralph Ogden Stiers does a brilliant job of capturing the essence of each character.
Rating:
Summary: Passable but yet "will do" for a lazy weekend!
Review: I picked up the book based on someone's recommendation. Well it kinds of emerges as a turn off if you expect a lot but in itself, its not a unpallatable quick reading while you have time to kill........ To be fair to Mr.Wolfe, he takes us through the life of the decadent and later reformed Charlie Croker and the parallely about the wrongly implicated Conrad and his faith, and how there paths meet. It has some interesting insights into the Stoic Philisophy and try to talk about life in Modern Atlanta in its truth but, it is not a riveting tale, though with certain patience it is passable and entertaining in certain sections.
Rating:
Summary: An Indictment of Masculinity
Review: This book oozes testosterone from between its pages, as thick and pungent as frat house Jagermeister. From "Cap'm" Croker, who survives on his obstinate bull-headedness, to Conrad Hensley, whose work-hardened hands have grown so thick he cannot type and thus cannot support his family in the new economy, to Roger Too White, who spends the entire book trying to prove his manliness by being 'black enough,' all of the characters are both defined and destroyed by their maleness. I say all of the characters because the few women are mere props--probably more real than the men, who are caricatures--but peripheral figures nonetheless. This book is such an indictment of the archetypal male, one might almost expect it to have come from one of the more celebrated feminist writers, except that the characters are so completely male they could only have come from Wolfe, the archetypal male writer (behind perhaps Louis L'Amour, Ernest Hemingway, and Mark Twain, whose white suits he tries so undeservedly to imitate). If some said that Bonfire of the Vanities perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the booming late-Reagan era, A Man in Full attempts to do the same for the late nineties, but misses the mark and instead portrays something that is only vaguely post-eighties. Even so, I give Wolfe a lot of credit for this ambitious, abstract exercise, this catalog of male failings, for although not exactly enjoyable, it is certainly compelling and I admit I could not put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Transplanted Atlantan Speaks
Review: As a person who has been physically removed from Atlanta for several years, I was asked to read Wolfe's book so I could comment on the validity of the scenario. I felt like I was riding in the limo with Wesley Dobbs Jordan and Roger Too White! I'm ready to go back and travel those streets myself! Wolfe is a fabulous researcher. I found myself so connected to the book that it was a letdown when I actually finished it. Never have I read a 750+ page book in such a short time. I also felt betrayed at the end because I did not want to see the characters end up the way they did. I have not read Bonfire of the Vanities, but I plan to read it right away! I recommend this book to all.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book Overfull
Review: Having been living in Asia for the past year in a half, imagine my delight at finding out one of my literary heroes, Tom Wolfe, had another NY Times bestseller underway. Scrambling for a month or so I located a copy in Hong Kong and nestled that oh, so appreciably hefty volume happily in my hands. Living abroad one become ravenous to read one's native language and, in the past, who but Wolfe has handled it so nimbly and amusingly? But then imagine my disappointment where upon halfway through the book (after a brillant start), I realized that I was holding a botched effort. Wasn't there anyone with enough clout at the publishing house to recommended that Dapper Tom prune this meandering Southern vine? I nearly quit on the book twice, thrice and then finished it, in low spirits, very disappointed. There's an old movie axiom - discounting the role of the narrator in cinema - which says its better to show something than be told about it. After 700 plus pages, the fate of the characters are wrapped up in conversation - between two of the book's minor and most uninvolving characters. Terrible idea. It worked as news clippings in "The Bonfire of the Vanities," but here it is anquishing. On a bright note, the book's central character of multimillionaire real estate developer Charlie Crocker - "the man in full" - is wonderful. But Wolfe abandons him far too frequently to develop his secondary characters and kills any compelling narative the book might have had. Even more painfully, this "sprawling comic effort" - or whatever was the gist of the review The NY Times chose to on bestow - is, simply not very funny. Not even in the way the non-fiction "The Right Stuff" was. I suppose I should mention I have read all of Tom Wolfes' books (and even found "From Bauhaus To Our House" more amusing) and loved them all deeply - except this one. What a pity. What a disappointment. Especially so far away from home.
Rating:
Summary: Impossible to put down, but be ready for a letdown.
Review: I'm not going to say anything different from any of the other reviews here, so i'm going to keep it short and sweet: The story gets four stars, the ending lowers it to three, but the prose is so entertaining I have to raise a star again. So there you have it. You do the math.
Rating:
Summary: A Book in Full
Review: A Man in Full was the first Tom Wolfe novel I've every read, I'm embarassed to admit. He is obviously an extremely important American author. I see him as a sort of an urbane Steinbeck, very American, at least in this book. The book is said to be a Southern piece, but I think it has too wide a scope to fulfill that mission. It's one of those books that keeps coming back in your memory. So many vivid scenes with outrageous characters. It's a book of ideas. Especially, the notion of two men from different life backgrounds, Charlie Croker the tycoon realestate broker and Conrad Hensley the down and out blue collar man, coming together over an obscure tome of ancient philosophy. I believe Tom Wolfe expressed some concern in an interview that readers would not find sympathy for Charlie Croker. He needn't have feared that, in my mind. I thought Croker rather heroic, despite his foibles and excesses. The range of Wolfe is amazing, from Stienbeckian views of the down and out family man to the power brokers of eastern society and business establishment, his charcters are well drawn and poignant. This is a substatial novel, a book of substance. Definitely a must for your reading list.
Rating:
Summary: 4-in-1
Review: At least 4 great novels wrapped in one average novel. Average by standards of Tom Wolfe off course. After reading his other novel "Bonfire of the Vanities", you feel that Tom Wolfe could have done much better than this one. The most disturbing aspect of this book is, like I said before, that there are too many different stories going on and they have a not much of an influence on the main story. At least one of them, the story of the guy who was sacked from a company owned by the main character, has no relevance to the main story until the ending pages and even that link is very weak. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed when I finished this book. Not because it's lousy, no, it's not, but because I was expecting much more riveting thing from the author of "Bonfire of the Vanities". My recommendations: A must read and if you haven't read "Bonfire of the Vanities", read this book first.
Rating:
Summary: A Man In Full
Review: 700+ pages of intriguing character and story development. 50+ pages of fizzle! After finishing the book last night, I felt I had just endured the same letdown of Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil (the major difference is that Wolf's book was great, but he seemed to be lost for an ending, Midnight started painfully slow and never got better). For an almost 800 page novel, it is a quick read with excellent character development, the right amount of detail (personal and environmental) and a multi-plot story that kept you involved right up to the end. The end. THE END. Therein lies the disappointment with this otherwise well designed piece of literature. My suggestion. Ignore the last 2 chapters and write your own ending. You will come away much more satisfied. If this book started like it ended, I wouldn't have made it past the first chapter. My only question is why would someone spend so much time developing detail and then throught the reader off a cliff? Are we part of the plot? A Man In Full, after all it's bright moments, left me empty at the end.
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