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Summary: Tom Wolfe is the best
Review: Tom Wolfe is the best there is, and A Man in Full is a big-canvas work, in which a multitude of characters seems to be ascending or (rapidly) descending the greasy pole of social life: "In an era like this one," a character reminds us, "the twentieth century's fin de siècle, position was everything, and it was the hardest thing to get." Wolfe has changed terrain on us, to be sure. Instead of New York, the focus here is Atlanta, Georgia, where the struggle for turf and power is at least slightly patinated with Deep South gentility.
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Summary: 'A Man in Full' is a snapshot of present-day American life
Review: Any book casting Danville, California as a great place to fulfill the American Dream preaches truth. While Wolfe's dialogues between East Bay Gen-X food freezer minions fall short of their escapist goals, the overall lessons--historical, not moral--are right on the money.
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Summary: What a book! What a great read!
Review: Tom Wolfe has made his fictional preferences loud and clear. For New Journalism's poster boy, minimalism is a wash, not to mention a failure of nerve. The real mission of the American writer is to produce fat novels of social observation--the sort of thing Balzac would be dishing up if he had made it into the Viagra era. Wolfe's manifesto would have had a hubristic ring if he hadn't actually delivered the goods in 1987 with The Bonfire of the Vanities. Now, more than a decade later, he's back with a second novel. Has the Man in White lived up to his own mission? On many counts, the answer would have to be yes. Like its predecessor, A Man in Full is a big-canvas work, in which a multitude of characters seems to be ascending or (rapidly) descending the greasy pole of social life: "In an era like this one," a character reminds us, "the twentieth century's fin de siècle, position was everything, and it was the hardest thing to get." Wolfe has changed terrain on us, to be sure. Instead of New York, the focus here is Atlanta, Georgia, where the struggle for turf and power is at least slightly patinated with Deep South gentility. The plot revolves around Charlie Croker, an egomaniacal good ol' boy with a crumbling real-estate empire on his hands. But Wolfe is no less attentive to a pair of supporting players: a downwardly mobile family man, Conrad Hensley, and Roger White II, an African American attorney at a white-shoe firm. What ultimately causes these subplots to converge--and threatens to ignite a racial firestorm in Atlanta--is the alleged rape of a society deb by Georgia Tech football star Fareek "The Cannon" Fanon.
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Summary: Entertaining but Overrated
Review: Wolfe has a marvelous gift for language; there are passages in this book as witty and insightful as any ever written. I admire him for taking on larger topics and multiple characters -- it's true that few people even attempt to work on this scale anymore, and Wolfe does so ably enough. However, Wolfe's talent for breadth is greater than his talent for depth. The characters are all shallow, and at times unbelievable. They frequently "discover" things about their city or society that they would certainly know -- it's a device for informing the reader, of course, but not a particularly clever one. And the ending is both so unlikely and so disappointing as to make one wonder whether Wolfe simply gave up. As entertainment, this is marvelous. As a candidate for the great American novel -- an unfair characterization maybe, but that's how it's been sold -- it's inadequate.
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Summary: I love books like this!!
Review: I would have finished this piece of literature even if I didn't have to discuss it with my book group this Sunday! I always joke that I never buy a book with an embossed cover. Hee Hee. I've never read Wolfe but now I will do so again. There were many kernels of interest and I wasn't insulted by his assumption that I need help understanding his prose. Add to that the descriptions that seem to be there so the costume designer of a forthcoming movie will know exactly how to dress his cardboard characters, and you have an epic that has the good grace to have a reasonable ending.I love long books and I treasure description and this book is a classic! A very great classic. Praise to you FSG.
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Summary: I couldn't put it down
Review: For a week I read this book in any free minute I had. Engrossing characters and plot lines. However I was very disappointed with the ending,which needed a lot more development. The book needed to be longer, if that's possible. I recommend this book to anyone -- a little disappointment is worth the enjoyment of the other 650 pages.
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Summary: Wolfe is our laureate
Review: Wolfe is the Voltaire of our century. Like Voltaire, Wolfe puts society in the mirror, and boy do we look silly. A Man In Full lets our hair down and causes a furor with the Atlanta intelligencia.
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Summary: THE BOMB
Review: I have been to Freaknik. I never would have guessed that we could've made it to a Tom Wolfe novel. If you've ever been to Atlanta you will enjoy the literary re-visit courtesy of Mr. Wolfe.
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Summary: Wolfe is a master
Review: There seems to be a roller coaster of sentiment regarding this book. At first everyone praised it as a literary masterpiece. Then when everyone realized that it wasn't the Moby Dick of the 20th century they scorned the book. Well, I am here to tell you that A Man In Full is neither a great work of literature nor a piece of junk. What it is is a incredibly entertaining modern novel. Written to lampoon modern Atlanta, A Man In Full delves deeply into the life of a real estate mogul, one Charles Croker. Tom Wolfe has created his greatest character in Croker, who is vain, egotistical and otherwise full of himself. The pace of the book lends itself to nonstop reading. The descriptive abilities of Wolfe are first rate. To sum it all up, if you want to take a ride on a thoroughly entertaining roller coaster then you will enjoy this book.
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Summary: I'm going to kill the member of my book group who chose this
Review: I never would have finished this piece of drivel if I didn't have to discuss it with my book group this Sunday! I always joke that I never buy a book with an embossed cover. Now I'll add "or with a die cut jacket". I've never read Wolfe and will never do so again. There were some kernels of interest but I was insulted by his assumption that I need help understanding his prose. Add to that the never ending descriptions that seem to be there so the costume designer of a forthcoming movie will know exactly how to dress his cardboard characters, and you have a disaster that doesn't even have the good grace to have a reasonable ending. I love long books and I treasure description but this book is a joke! A very bad joke. Shame on you FSG.
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