A Man in Full

Rating:
Summary: Offensive to Southerners
Review: As an Atlanta native, I found the first 150 pages so boring and offensive I returned the book to the library. The attempt to replicate the southern dialect was boring and tedious to read. Atlanta is a very cross cultural town and very few individuals carry on as Wolfe implies.

With books like this written about the South, no wonder everyone else in the world thinks of us as uneducated wilting magnolias with nothing on our minds but what we are going to wear to the next ball! This ain't Tara, Scarlett. Wolfe needs to return to his roots and ingest what the South is in 1999.

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe I read the whole thing!
Review: If this book hadn't been a present from someone whose taste in books I respect, I would have dumped it earlier. I found the descriptive details of the man's wife and her friend tiresome and boring. Then again, I am a woman -- so the details don't titillate. When Istart wondering about the author, the disruption intrudes into the story. As to the story--terrific plot. Could have been enjoyable if it were one third the length.I have never read (skimmed in lots of places) a book that screamed so loudly for a good edit!!! Do not recommend anyone spend a dime on this book. Check it out at the library or borrow it from a friend, that way you can put it down permanently after the first foray into the thicket of verbage.

Rating:
Summary: I gave it one star because there was no 'no star' category
Review: In short (a concept Tom Wolfe should consider adopting) - thecharacters were caricatures, the plot was annoyingly contrived and thelanguage was, at best, 6th grade level (apologies to all you 6th graders out there). Oh, yeah, I almost forgot - all women over the age of 40 and women who don't look like 'boys with breasts' - beware. Now for the good news - the book is huge and comes in handy as a step stool.

Rating:
Summary: decent read, if you like 700 page books
Review: A pretty good book. The character development was superior, though the characters themselves were an odd lot. The plot progresses at a leisurely pace, culminating in a wholly disappointing ending that makes a reader pause, scratch his head, and wonder aloud if Mr. Wolfe merely wanted to hurry up and finish the book.

Rating:
Summary: Awful, simply dreadful stuff
Review: Overwrought descriptions, contorted plot, repetitious language, and a let-down ending... Are we certain this is the same author who gave us Bonfires?

Rating:
Summary: What was up with that ending???
Review: As expected the author weaves a good story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Then, inexplicably, he ends it in the most expedient and disappointing way imaginable. It's as though his publisher gave him a limit on the number of pages he could write.

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME, BABY! AWESOME!
Review: Simply: The book's ending leaves you glad you read the book. While the book is quite interesting most of the way through, the conclusion was even better.

Rating:
Summary: Audio edition is excellent...
Review: This is my first Tom Wolf book. I thought I'd give the audio edition a try. David Ogden Stiers does a marvelous job of reading it. He really makes the book work, in my opinion. I am going to look for more books narrated by him. I listen to a lot of books on tape - and Stiers gets an A+. I'll probably also try "Bonfire" now, too. I only wish they hadn't made it an abridged edition... it seems like such a waste to abridge a good book, what's the hurry?

Rating:
Summary: How an average story can be told in a GREAT way
Review: This book has already received over five hundred reviews, rendering the attempt to say something NEW inevitably futile. Nevertheless, I think it is never a fault to echo some opinions and to try to venture a few for discussion.

The single criticism most acutely lodged against the book concerns its ending. I totally agree with this. To me, the problem lies not in the actual ending but in the very way it ends. When I was 600 pages through, I was beginning to wonder how the book could end with the thickness remaining! As it turns out, the substantial accounting of each character is done in less than 10 pages at the end. Wouldn't it be better if all these final happenings were acted out along the development of the plot rather than as told in a conversation! Some characters are really overdone , for example, Conrad. He has been leading a lone act for far too long. I am sure no readers can fathom his role until the very end. And that role of him, in my opinion, is verging on the ridiculous. I have to say that the author had somehow lost control of this character. I would conjecture a more exciting structure if more was said of Inman, his daughter, the Cannon, the case and that they got interwoven and exploded about half-way through.

All in all, it boils down to an imbalance of character treatment and, of course, an inadequacy of pace. Again, I wouldn't say that the pace of the book is slow. But as far as the ending is concerned, the pacing is simply improper.

But Wolfe is unquestionably a genius. Without sounding ironical, given the awakward pace and the immensity of the book, (well, I cannot accuse the ending before the fact) I had not been bored by a single page! The narrative is nothing but superb. The description of characters are so deep, so vivid that not even a visual portray can compare. Try to recall the part where Croker laboured to impress his prospective tenants! How the pride, the big ego were challenged and subdued by the impending reality of bankrupty! And of course, the "adventures" of Conrad were really legendary. I couldn't recall any writer that exceeds Wolfe in this respect.

As a first encounter with the work of Wolfe, I am not disappointed and I would definitely go through the "by-the-same-author" list.

Rating:
Summary: To be enjoyed not as a novel...
Review: Yeah yeah yeah, this is NOT the Great Novel we've been waiting for, the ending is a disappointment (but who cares about ENDINGS anyway?), and the story is ... well, a bit weak. Right, fellow customer-reviewers, I agree. But::: Apart from these shortcomings I must say I HAD FUN. Yes, I DID enjoy "A Man in Full" - simply due to its journalistic virtues. And these are: Marvelous descriptions (think of the Saddle Bags scene! - o, that verisimilitude!), excellent mood (when our anti-hero has no money for the parking meter and all the catastrophes that ensue... - left me in a COLD SWEAT!), and a bunch of REALLY cartoonish characters. So, as a story this novel might be a failure (and was not worth all that media hype), but as a text to be enjoyed as a process of reading, by a READER (not too many left of that species, I'm afraid), "A Man in Full" rates high. Read it if you're willing to spare the time, and forget about the "story"!