A Man in Full

Rating:
Summary: High Hopes Dashed
Review: After the success of Bonfire, I had hoped that this book would be wonderful, even one of the great ones of our time. Not so. Instead of a recovery from his well-publicized psychological problems, for Wolfe this book seems more like therapy. He covers over 700 pages with cardboard characters, soap opera dialogue, B-movie action scenes, and formula-driven story lines, but only occasionally succeeds in compelling my attention. Perhaps the main problem is that among all the egos and libidos there is not one character who is complex or sympathetic. Required reading for cocktail parties, but otherwise a waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: An insult to all Southerners!
Review: I thought that Wolfe was better than this trash! Both "Bonfire" and "Right Stuff" were much, much better. Having spent a number of years in Atanta, I know that the city is not perfect, but Wolfe attampted to cross an insane asylum and a prison camp, and it didn't work very well. The characters were shallow (at best). The book had little redeeming social (or otherwise) value. I'll take him off my list of "authors to read".

Rating:
Summary: Commercial and boring
Review: Except for excellent descriptions of people and places this book does not capture the reader's imagination. None of the characters are sympathetic, and the plot is very shallow.

Rating:
Summary: Weak, Weak, Weak
Review: Wow. It took 742 pages to develop a weak premise into a full blown disaster! One word summarizes virtually every character in the book: stereotype. Seems like even the author got bored with it. He took 720 pages to build up to the "climax" only to poop out in the end. I guess it was'nt just one of the main characters who turned out to be impotent.

Rating:
Summary: Great start and development--author pooped out before done.
Review: Great character development. Incredibly tight script. He wove in tough philosophical thoughts naturally. I thought the author pooped out before finishing the book, however. Charlie Croker an evangelist for Zeus? No way. He would have fought back and pulled it off somehow.

Rating:
Summary: The Worst I have seen in years
Review: Compared to Bonfire, this book is a major dissapointment. The ending was bad and the characters were truly unlikeable. But hey, he tried...and failed. Come up with a better one soon, Tom!

Rating:
Summary: Some wonderful moments, weak story, bad ending, disappoints.
Review: I had hoped for much better. I read Bonfire, and enjoyed it, but felt that story had some weaknesses. This story is far, far worse. However, there are some sublime reading moments within (the quail plantation dinner, Martha's interactions with Ray, the jail tv room, the workout session at the bank). But you work much too hard laboring through the rest of it. This needed better editing. Wolfe should have negotiated for six more months to cut it back some, tighten the whole thing and come up with a plausible ending. The ending screams "Deadline Panic." Read the first half of the book, read about Conrad in jail and avoid the last few chapters. I imagine that Wolfe, if given the chance, could still make this into something most of us would enjoy, but as written the book is bloated, directionless and ultimately forgettable.

Rating:
Summary: why use so many words and say nothing
Review: I got tired of reading and nothing was happening-after 350 pages I gave up because I didnt care about any of the characters

Rating:
Summary: Half done, bored, skipping pages, and the ending is poor?
Review: I loved Bonfire and think the comparisons by the so-called experts are ridiculous. This book is tedious, the characters don't interest me at all and I'm halfway through. I find myself like many of your readers skipping many pages because I know where each scene is headed or I don't care enough to find out. I want to finish the book but the thought that I will come upon a lousy ending is truly disheartening. Just like the movie reviewers, I wish we had literary critics who were more honest. You can like the man and not like this book and should tell us so.

Rating:
Summary: Length-driven wasted plot
Review: The characters are fabulous and the setting is wonderful, but this sure doesn't approach the quality of his previous offerings. You find yourself wisking through a dozen pages at a time, being pestered with minor, irrelevant detail, constant and annoying insights in to what characters are thinking. A good third of this book doesn't need to be read----it's just too bad he didn't mark the pages he wrote strictly to achieve the desired length. There is no way this book is worth the time it takes to read it. I remember the old days when I laughed at my dad for reading Readers Digest condensed books----but in this case, their version would undoubtedly be a far better experience.