A Man in Full

Rating:
Summary: Well, it's full of something
Review: "A Man in Full" seems like several books were pounded together, with the subtley of a guided missle. It's certainly a very quick read and very enjoyable at times, but if you like to savor your literature, this book isn't for you. I think I found the fairly ludicrous plot, which I don't think Wolfe for a second had any faith in himself, to be most irksome. I also disliked how Wolfe chooses to go to ridiculous finite details in descibing a characters' clothes (i.e. how far the dots are spaced on one character's tie) and yet completely backs out of exploring the emotional depth of important scenes where characters confront each other. It's not a bad book, but... I was expecting more from something that's 700+ pages.

Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING WRITING
Review: Although portions of the book are a bit wordy, it held my interest cover to cover. The most enjoyable part of the book is the outstanding writing.
Example from page 49: "With a few arcs of that chin he had knocked the vain props out from under the great man, ripped away the insulation and the princely protocol, and left him sitting white and plump in his birthday suit, a sinner, a debtor, a deadbeat minus his dignity, naked before an unsparing dun."
My question: Who, besides a true master of the art of writing, could have written a sentence like that?

Rating:
Summary: Best book of the 1990s
Review: A Wonderful book - certainly the best book of the 1990s...perhaps one of the best of the last century.

Rating:
Summary: anorther man in full
Review: Tom Wolfe's novel, A Man in Full is an intriguing book about sixty-year old Atlanta real estate developer whose empire has begun a grim slide toward bankruptcy and a twenty-three-year-old manual laborer who works in the freezer unit of a wholesale food warehouse in Alameda County, California, owned by the developer.
The book starts out with Charlie Croker, out shooting quail on his vast South Georgia plantation. Then moves on to Roger White, a spiffy black lawyer, as he drives to an urgent appointment. It moves to a variety of people who have some connection with each other. And Wolfe tells a part of their lives to answer a single question who is truly a man in full.
To answer that question Wolfe brings in men who have every thing and men who are happy with what they have and the two main charters are like this they are an owner of a major company and one of the shipping employees.
I believe that wolf uses the connections that you make with his charters very well in telling his story. Any one who reads this book will be intrigued by it development of its characters and his ability to keep you enthused. Wolfe says

"If a man has talent and can't use it, he's failed. If he uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he uses the whole of it, he has succeeded, and won a satisfaction and triumph few men ever know."

This goes to show you how he thinks and gives you some insight to the great mind that wrote A Man In Full.

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Summary: Review of "A Man in Full"
Review: The novel "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe describes the society of modern Atlanta with its problems between black and white, rich and poor.
The main character of the story, Charlie Croker, is a successful real estate developer however he is deep in debt. To get out of this unpleasant situation, he searches for a solution that would allow him to keep his good position in society. As a former Football star he is asked to speak for a black Football player who is accused of having raped the daughter of Charlie`s friend. This way, Charlie could loose his debts.
With the use of motifs and interesting language the author describes the problems of corruption in politics.
After a surgery Charlie is introduced to the Stoics philosophy. This event changes his attitude towards money and belongings completely and he gives his possession to the bank. Surprisingly he leaves Atlanta and becomes a successful TV- preacher whereas the city is left in trouble.
Tom Wolfe used motifs of sexuality, relationship and the role of politics to show character roots and plot development. This helped to make the sometimes complicated story line easy to understand. However one has to invest time to read this piece of literature!
The author used beautiful language and interesting characters to make the story enjoyable. All in all the novel satisfied me in reading, altough the ending is a bit too short in comparison to the rest of the novel.
I recommend this novel to those readers who are interested in politics,like to follow the development of different characters and have enough time to read.

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Summary: review "A Man in Full"
Review: The fictional novel "A Man in Full", by Tom Wolfe, deals with the financial and racial problems of several characters. Three different stories that take place in Atlanta and Oakland go along parallel, but are running together in the end.
First of all there is Charlie Croker who is in debt and struggling with PlannersBanc which tries to get all his possessions. The second story is about Roger White, who has to defend the Georgia Tech football star Fareek Fanon in [an attack] case. Fanon is accused of [attacking] Elizabeth Armholster, the daughter of the famous and influential businessman Inman Armholster. The third story is about Conrad Hensley who gets laid-off and ends up in jail because of a dumb coincidence.
The "Stoics Philosophy" is a very important element that comes up all the time throughout the story. Conrad Hensley is amazed by the religion of Zeus since he read a book of the Stoics when he was in jail. Charlie adopted his religion when Conrad stayed with him as a nursing assistant.

Our first impression of the book was not too good. The prologue confused us a little and was not helpful as an introduction. The book contains too much detailed, senseless and boring information, which is the reason why it was hard having the motivation to keep on reading. We also did not like the topic and the structure. In comparison to the detailed beginning of the book the hilarious ending is much too short. Our proposal for improvement is a shorter style of writing (not so detailed) and a better ending which fits to the rest.
We would recommend the book in first place only to men, because we think it is a typical mensbook/machobook. The book is written for men who are in their "midlife-crisis" and maybe are about to lose everything they owe, their possessions, their family and so on. The book is probably especially interesting for businessmen who are in the 40's or 50's.

Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: The novel "A Man in Full" is mainly about social and racial problems. The complex story also shows the importance of relationships and money for the position in society.
In this book many well described protagonists like for example Charlie Croker, Conrad Hensley and Roger Too White, who have different feelings and belong to different social classes, can be found.
At the beginning of the book it seems as if these characters are not much related but after some chapters Tom Wolfe connects their different lives and problems.
In Atlanta the former football-star and now successful business-man Charlie Croker, who owns a great empire of food warehouses and is the master of a 29.000 acres plantation called "Turpmtine", owes PlannersBanc 750 million dollars so he has to lay off many of his workers.
This decision introduces the young Conrad Hensley. Compared to his working mates he is a very responsible person and he has a clear aim for the future (a new condo for his family). But after he lost his job at the food warehouse his bad luck continues and he finally ends up in jail. By chance he receives a book about the Stoics philosophy which later has a huge impact on him.
Back in Atlanta the black football-star Fareek Fanon is accused of raping the daughter of the influential white business-man Inman Armholster. To avoid a race riot the black lawyer Roger Too White has to defend him. But for this he also needs the help of his old friend Wes Jordan who is now mayor of Atlanta.
Surprisingly Charlie Croker is involved in this rape case but he has to make a decision: will he support his longtime friend Inman Armholster or Fareek Fanon to get rid off his money problems.
In our opinion there are many interesting parts like for example Conrad's time in jail but unfortunately the book also contains some boring and disgusting passages like the "horse mate". Tom Wolfe also tends to use too long descriptions of the setting, although they are sometimes unnecessary for the plot. Another disadvantage is the ending which is very short compared to the rest of the book.
We recommend this book to everyone who is a "fan" of Tom Wolfe, but also to those who like detailed descriptions of the setting and can identify with one of the characters.

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Summary: Review j.
Review: Review

The novel "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe cannot be categorized. It is not written for a special readership. In its complexity it shows many different aspects of the American society.
It deals with the importance of money, crime , racism, religion, sexuality and politics.

In the book there are many main characters but the most important one is Charlie Croker.
Charlie is a great developer, whose status symbol is money . When he loses all his money, he is afraid of being ostracized of the higher society in Atlanta. Because of this he becomes a marionette of politics. He shall support a black football player, who is accused of having raped a white girl - the daughter of a rich businessman. But then he meets Conrad, whose live has been changed by Charlie's fate. Now it is Conrad`s turn to change Charlie`s attitude towards life by "The Stoics philosophy".
The reader gets to know a lot about this religion.
The many different characters in Tom Wolfe`s book represent different positions in society, but they are all connected by the same motifs. That is what impresses the reader a lot.
He gets to know every different character very detailed and précised. It seems as if he reads some different, independent stories. But then somehow everything fits together. The characters are all connected and meet at one point.
My first impression after reading was: "Uh, must have been difficult to write such a complex novel." I think it actually is a good book because Tom Wolfe writes about a lot of themes, which are important in life. It is not just a fiction story, it is close to reality.
When you read it, you think: "it must work like this in politics" and "yes, this is our society."
But Tom Wolfe tries to hide this truth behind a kind of humor. But a negative aspect of this book is that descriptions are often too detailed - so it gets boring.

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Summary: Review for Tom Wolfe's "A Man In Full"
Review: In the 34 chapters (including the prologue and the epilogue) of "A Man In Full" Tom Wolfe tells the story of 5 characters who have problems with their relationships, money and their positions in society.

Charlie, a very rich and powerful man in Atlanta, gets into trouble with PlannersBanc and it looks like he is losing everything now - his property, his money and his position in the high society of Atlanta.
Roger White, a local lawyer, has to defend a very famous black football player against the accusation of having raped the daughter of one of the most important people in Atlanta - Inman Armholster. This is getting more and more difficult and soon he needs help to avoid a racial conflict.
Conrad Hensley loses his job and gets into trouble with the law. In his story, he gets to know about the philosophic school of Eptiket and Zeus.
Raymond Peepgass works at PlannersBanc and also has problems with money. Then he meets Martha Croker, Charlie Croker's ex-wife, who lives a very high life in Buckhead - but her position in society is very low since she hasn't got a man by her side.

In the book, Tom Wolfe shows his profound competence and shows typical motifs of our century. Every place and every character is described very detailed and he uses many varieties of English to catch the readers' interest.
The story is well structured. Especially interesting: The complex constellation of the 5 main characters.
But the conversations between Roger White and Wes Jordan (the major of Atlanta) are very boring to read, because it seems that Tom Wolfe only wrote down a list of facts.
Other weaknesses are the lack of emotions and the too short ending that doesn't fit the rest of the book.

But all in all, "A Man In Full" is a very well-done novel with some weaknesses. It describes very detailed and especially the parts about Charlie Croker and Conrad Hensley motivate the reader to read on.

Rating:
Summary: A review from English class, 12th grade
Review: Review `A Man in Full' by Tom Wolfe

'A Man in Full` by Tom Wolfe is not a novel to be categorized easily. Therefore it is not only recommendable for a certain type of readership, either. It is for everyone who is interested in learning more about how society works about the religion of the Stoics, or the geography of Atlanta, Georgia. This is how complex the book is.

With its length of more than 700 pages it might scare you off first but once you start to read, it does not matter anymore. `A Man in Full' is actually more like three books in one because it tells the story of more than three main characters whose lives all meet at the end of the plot through the brilliantly complex plot.

One of them is Charlie Croker, a real-estate developer out of money, who realizes that there is not much of yourself left once you lose your possessions as a member of the high society. When he is supposed to defend a black athletic, who is accused of having raped a girl of the high society in order to keep his money, he is forced to decide what is really important to him.

During the plot, the reader is taught about many different things that show the author's competence. Tom Wolfe in fact did a lot of research for this book, e.g. about prison life or about life on Georgia plantations.

Another feature of this novel is the author's detailed description. It really helps you imagining things, it is like you have been to the places yourself and you have seen the characters yourself. This is another reason why the book got so long. It is a little disappointing, though, that this very detailed story is ended kind of abruptly.

Other than that there is nothing to criticize about this book. It is both entertaining and informative, a combination which only great authors like Tom Wolfe can create.

PS: by the way, all our books fell apart during the reading. we ordered new ones, and they broke, too.