Rating: 
Summary: False hope
Review: This is the best door stop I have ever bought. By weight and volume it is unsurpassed. However, as enjoyable reading it is fleeting at best. Mr. Wolfe has his moments - 742 pages can't be all bad - but in general the book is an incredibly disappointment. My only hope is they don't make a movie of this dribble.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining
Review: Tom Wolfe intertwines three story lines in a way I have never seen anyone do it before. He keeps you from getting bored. All of the charactors seem to have a personality of their own. I really enjoyed this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Huge Disappointment on a Wolfeian scale
Review: As much as I enjoyed Bonfire, which was so engrossing that I knocked it off in a weekend, I could not seem to pick this book up.Riddled with cookie cutter cliches and themes from Bonfire of the Vanities, only Tom Wolfe seems able to create as collosel of a 'repeat' as this. It was like sitting through the entire "Rocky" series without an escape. It illustrates the reason I rarely read Pop fiction anymore (the book was a gift)- every book is the same old thing. -Carl Friedrich, Rye, NY
Rating: 
Summary: Fun to read...
Review: I have to admit, I was disappointed in the ending. However, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Great Literature? No. Enjoyable and a great escape? Yes. Funny? Absolutely!!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Author of Our Time
Review: Tom Wolfe will be one of the few modern writers who's works will be read by students in the future. Since leaving behind his drug experimentation writings which often wrambled off into meaningless realms, Wolfe has become the true social commentator of our time. He provides fully developed characters from all walks of life like no one else can. Sometimes I wonder how this man can write about all that he does, how much research does he do? You'll find yourself inside the minds and hearts his men and women, from uptown balls to jail house brawls. I wish everyone would read this book, it will truly add something more to your life.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: A Man in Full is absolutely addicting. Every spare moment I had I was reading this masterpiece. This book will live on through the ages telling the story of how life in the United States is at the end of the 20th century (he's in the same class as Doestoevsky). Remarkably he finds a way to describe the life and include the point of view of every social class in the book. Some parts of the book were redundant (like the onamonapeia with the southern accents)and unnecessary, but overall he paints a vivid picture through a captivating story line. The end is somewhat rushed and unexpected, not at all in tune with the mood of the rest of the book. Even with it's weaknesses, I still loved A Man in Full and would recommend it to anyone!!
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Wolfe Classic
Review: Wolfe gives us a great feel for the south from the point of view of a greedy self serving businessman. That part of the book is interesting and somewhat consistent with what you expect from a Tom Wolfe book. So far so good. The first three quarters of the book are a 4 star rating. Then we get to the end. The ending is very disappointing. One gets the feeling that Wolfe ran out of creative steam as he got to the end. Very mediocre ending rating one star. Overall a three star.
Rating:
Summary: Stick to non-fiction Tom Wolfe!
Review: The characters are stereotypical. The plot has some interesting turns, but ends with a whimper. As I was reading I wondered if this is the same author I remembered from "The Right Stuff", and "Radical Chic". Evidently not. A grand disappointment, but the writing is nevertheless grand.
Rating:
Summary: A crash landing after a great trip.
Review: The first 600 or so pages are Tom Wolfe at his best, with fascinating, well-developed characters woven into a terrific tale of some social importance. But the rest reads as if Wolfe's publisher, reading his book chapter-by-chapter, gave him an ultimatum to resolve the plot before it rambled on for 1,000 pages or more. Wolfe brings the book to a screeching halt by whipping-up an improbable series of coincidences and character personality changes that'll have you groaning. A good read spoiled.
Rating:
Summary: My 9 year old brother could have thought of a better ending
Review: I read a lot of these reviews when I was about halfway through the book, and frankly I was surprised at how no one seemed to get the point of the book, that the big, wordy sentences and elaborate descriptions make this a beautiful triumph of American literature. No one seemed to get this book and it's meaning, about the selfishness of a man too proud to be humbled in defeat, and his opposite from across the country, humble and poor, caring only for his family and his honor. Early in the book, when Conrad is being tried, we get the sense that he will accept any punishment, as long as he doesn't have to sacrifice what was truly important- his honor and the respect (though they couldn't know at the time) of his family. Later on we see Charlie consider the loss of honor and his best friend for his company. And we wonder, what would we have done? The contrasts between the characters are there, and they're fascinating...the only problem is, I can't see how the ending made any sense. How did Charlie become enticed with the Stoics? With any other novelist I would have accepted his pat explanation of how Conrad converted him, but after Wolfe has just told us every single thought in everyone's mind it just doesn't cut it. I need more. I need a real ending. I agree with the person who said that you shouldn't even read the Epilogue. It'll make you angry. Angry not in what happens to the characters (though that alone may make you angry in it's implausibility), but in the nonchalant way Wolfe throws it at us. The talk between Wes and Roger is horrible, and you just have to think that Wolfe could have done so so much better with just a little more time. All in all the book was worth the read. It was compelling, and though it had it's flaws, it redeemed itself by the character analysis and incredible dialogue and situations. Well recommended from this 11th grader.
| 
