Rating: 
Summary: American sophistication beyond the story
Review: Mr. Wolfe philosophical message escape to most readers under a certian age, like the 17 years old diappointed reviewer on these pages.Conrad, the character who survives prison and hosexual rape, discovers in the lecture of the ancient Stoics, Epitectus. Most Americans (and most people) do not understand what Epitectus means when he says "...never forge... the body is ot yours, it's simply a clever mixture clay" to whom Zeus (the Divinity) gave it the spark of life." I was amazed how similar are the thoughts of Epitectus to Lurianic Kaballah, the Jewish mysticism school from the sixteenth century in Safed, Israel. KAballist say the the Creator, had to contract, to create a small island of imperfection where the world, our world can be created. We were initially linked to the Divine through some vessells. When the brght divine light travelled through these vessells, they broke. As a result, imperfect as we are, we all have a spark of divine act in each of us. We all can influence God, looking for this spark of divine light in all of us. If this is my body, this is my mind and this is my soul, then who am I? Most people do not ask this question. If they do (like Epitectus and the Kaballists did), they are perplexed. We do not know why volcans explode and why not now and we do not know when. We do not know when a new Isaac Newton and George Washington will be born. These are signs that divinity works through us, people, as it does through the entire Universe. In Atlanta, the man in full, Charlie Crocker, has a miserable time when he discovers that all he has around him are 'things': Even his 26 year wife #2 is a thing. The honor in his Atlanta was to possess things we can never take with us when we depart from this world. Conrad is the other side of Charlie Crocker. The truth is subtle. Mr Wolfe did his best to translate complicate feelings to the simple minds of a 17 year old reader used to read calculator manuals and how to books. In fact the entire statistical America stops reading books at that age, 17, when amassing things takes the first priority as part of the self-suficiency freedom. American books must be clear. Epitectus and Kaballah are not for everyone. The awarness to dicover and talk to God is an elitistic don, that best writers do understand. They must not talk about it openly, as their best-sellers readers, who pay all expenses, may not understand. Congratulations Mr. Wolfe. Miha Ahronovitz
Rating: 
Summary: A very very very long read but kept me going until the end.
Review: I have never read anything by Tom Wolfe although I did see Bonfire and Right Stuff in the Theaters and actually liked both a lot. This book is nothing like the other two stories, which isn't a bad thing. The author is has an amzing ability to weave a story and bring unlikely characters together. That said, I felt that some of the characters portrayed were somewhat weak in terms of being interesting or shallow in their developemnet. There were two fasinating characters that make this book worthwhile and that get you going until the end.
The ending was a big disapointment that left you thinking why did I spend the time to get such a lousy forced climax. It is like a roller coaster with out a big drop. Over all the book had some real nice nuggets but but not enough of them to recommend it to a friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful page-turner
Review: Found this book fantastic to read. Although initially you wonder how the characters in the initial chapters correlate, consequently they begin to blend together more, and more. Excellent twists and turns - you can't put it down, although you have to eventually since it is by no means a short book.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated, but barely worth reading
Review: First of all, I am still about 100 pages away from finishing the book, so maybe the ending is so profound that it would make me like the book a lot more, but I doubt it based on the reviews I've read on this site, which often say that the ending is pretty weak. Anyway, when I bought the paperback of this book, I read all the quotes on the back cover and inside that call Wolfe a genius and one of the greatest American writers of all time, and I was ready to read an absolute masterpiece. What I've read so far is not a masterpiece at all, it is just an average book. For a book that is 800 pages long, it is suprisingly low on content. The story is pretty boring and I don't really care about what happens to any of the characters or how the story, if there even is one, turns out. The chapters about the character named Conrad are absurd and so far (about 660 pages in) don't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the book. I could go on for a while listing things about this book that don't impress me, but I won't. The book's strongest point is the quality of the writing itself, but I'd rather read a novel with a excellent story and good writing than a novel with a mediocre story and excellent writing. By the way, I'm 17 years old and haven't read a whole lot of books in my life, so if this book was really the masterpiece that the critics seem to think it is, then it should have impressed me a lot more. Don't put this book high on your To Read list. Read it if you like reading for the sake of reading and can get through an 800 page novel in a week or two, but don't waste more than two weeks of your reading time on it.
Rating: 
Summary: An obviously frantic attempt to release a long overdue book
Review: I so anticipated Tom Wolfe's new book that I bought a copy for both myself and my Father. Regrettably, it turned out to be one of the worst gifts that I've given in recent years. With few exceptions, Tom Wolfe's jounalistic and fiction works have been some of the most engaging, entertaining, and worthwhile mass market books that I've read. A Man in Full is a disappointing departure from Wolfe's usual quality. On it's own, A Man in Full might have been a decent, though far from perfect, read. Unfortunately, when compared to Bonfire of the Vanities, and a comparison is unavoidable, it's a disaster. Despite the 10+ year interval between Wolfe's writing of the two books, it seems as if Wolfe was unable to come up with anything new. A Man in Full is essentially a poorly executed copy of everything that was wonderful and original in Bonfire of the Vanities. The styles (as expected) are almost identical, the motivations and personalities of the characters are a far too obvious one-to-one mapping, and while the story is admittedly somewhat different, the endings are not. Bonfire was truly a great work of fiction but A Man in Full is anything but. This is one of the few Tom Wolfe books that I don't recommend. Stick with The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Wolfe was and is a great journalist, but it's clear that The Bonfire of the Vanities is his one and only great work of fiction.
Rating:
Summary: tedious
Review: I tried, I really tried to read this boring, self- indulgent, deadly tedious book, but I just couldn't get past the 200th page (and that was pushing it). The only thing about the book that was on the positive side was it helped me fall directly to sleep. Plus what's the deal with his obvious strong dislike of women past 40? He's no prize himself. I think Mr. Wolfe should take a break from writing and maybe try another profession. Yuck.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, well researched, deep and coherent story
Review: The author has a gift for creating very different but believable characters. Everything is well researched and ties together...by the time you're finished, you'll want to see Atlanta and Turpemtine. You'll even want to read the same book one of the main characters is reading!
Rating:
Summary: A Powerfully Entertaining Read, Guarantee
Review: I am a prolific and voracious reader, usually reading five, six or more books a month, fiction and nonfiction alike. But for the last year, I have not been able to completely read one single book. Absolutely nothing interested me enough to get past the first few chapters of any book. Then I bought Wolfe's A Man in Full and practically ate the whole thing in a few days, all 787 pages. I simply COULD NOT put it down. Yes, I expected an ending with more impact, but even with the lukewarm ending, the book was a powerfully entertaining read. Wolfe has a wonderful manner of portraying American society through satire. I high recommend this book to anyone who has Reader's Block, or desires a different read from the norm or just for the helluvit. You'll laugh yer arse off, shake yer head in wonder and be sorry it all ended... Guarantee.
Rating:
Summary: I could hardly put it down!
Review: I can agree with some of the other erudite critics here that maybe the ending, the epilogue, was a tad flat, but probably only because it ended too abruptly. The first 700 pages or so were GREAT! I loved practically every minute of it! Wolfe is wonderful . . . still!
Rating:
Summary: A new book attempted in an old style
Review: The style of Tom Wolfe's earlier books, that is. This book attempts to reignite The Bonfire of the Vanities by changing the venue to Atlanta and the franchise to land development. But the same style of exaggerated, onomatopoetic, galloping prose no longer works well coming from this writer. It is the kind of prose better suited to an earlier, younger, more muscular and testosterone-engulfed Wolfe. He is no longer in firm command of this style, and, further, by its own very success it seems to have fallen into a parodistic swamp. Respectfully, I believe it is time for Mr. Wolfe to consider a new approach to writing, one that would fit better with his current level of ability. Fewer words perhaps? More efficiently placed? I really can't say, but this book does not work as it might have twelve years ago. Think of Michelangelo's Pieta, done in youth, and Unbound Slaves, done in age. Both are great works. Michelangelo, working in stone, could no longer physically wring a David from Carrara marble. But he could make the suggestion of humans struggling to free themselves from the rock. For a writer, since the physical exertion is small, one may be encouraged to continue to write as one might have done years ago. But the effort, at least in this case, no longer brings forth the same result. Sometimes, eloquence begs silence. I cannot recommend this book to anyone who loved Bonfire or The Right Stuff. It's long and tedious, and the ending is disappointing. This is not to say that the book doesn't have its moments. It's just that we expect a stream of such moments from Mr. Wolfe, and instead we find a few clear pools in a long, muddy road.
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