A Man in Full

Rating:
Summary: so well devloped characters the ending is like life - what
Review: I think Tom is such an honest and hysterically funny observer of the social scene and also a kind one that the end is only disappointing because life is ongoing and he is reflecting that in his work. I read it in one sitting and was only sorry it didnt continue for what life thanks Tom . YOUre a man in full.

Rating:
Summary: 100 pages of content written on 750
Review: A was extremely dissapointed in this #1 bestseller by Tom Wolfe. You could easily skip chapter after chapter and not miss a beat. Meaningless characters were overdeveloped and many subplots should have been left. I was so pround of myself for struggling through all 742 pages just to be greeted with a terrible ending.

Rating:
Summary: great set pieces...perfunctory ending
Review: Setting predominates in Wolfe's gatherings of the main characters; the he-man Gun Room, the purposely shabby "workout" room at PlannersBanc, the self-conscious social challenge of the Lapeth exhibit. What works for me about the book is Croker's helplessness in adjusting to these varied surroundings. As an Atlanta native, I was fascinated by the limo scene in which Mayor Jordan instructed Roger White on the topography of the city and its effect on socio-economic/racial "boundaries". Around page 650, though, I also began wondering how in the world he was going to tie everything up, and was fairly disappointed. Not enough to condemn the book, but to issue this caveat emptor: If the city of Atlanta as a character (and make no mistake -- other than Charlie Croker, Atlanta is THE main character) in the book doesn't pique your interest, you may not care for this.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting & engaging novel but questionable literature.
Review: I enjoyed the story qite a bit finding it engaging and attempting to make statements about contemporary American life.

However, the characters are extremely stereotypical under the guise of satire. The novel could have reached heights had there been more of an effort to make them genuine. The plot becomes somewhat outrageous reminding the reading of John Irving and that also detracts from its potential.

The real litmus test is whether it is readable; all 700 pages. It is.

Rating:
Summary: A Titanic Novel?
Review: At first blush it appears that the size and power of A Man In Full puts it roughly in the dreadnought class. Unfortunately, things soon sink rapidly. Readers suffer a heavy ordinance of a now familiar Wolfian device of contriving to place each character in the most tortuous situation possible. This gets old fast. Nor does the book tap into the Zeitgeist in the same way that Bonfire did. The biggest flaw here is the conclusion. Readers will heave an enormous yawn at the relently vapid and dippy culmination of this buxom volume. Don't buy the hype -- this book has about as much chance of becoming an enduring American classic as Tom Wolfe has of winning the Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rating:
Summary: Flat
Review: What a bunch of liberal mish mash. A selfmade millionaire is made a laughing stock, while an escaped convict is held up the hero. Typical New Aged balogney. All form and no substance. I wish I could get my money back

Rating:
Summary: Essentially a 742-page comic strip.
Review: Ol' Tom proved himself to be a marvelous essayist in "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test"......but as Mary said to Charles, "Lamb, stick to essays." "Bonfire" had one-dimensional characters and a plot that not even the author could tie up at the end, but some of the atmospherics were wonderful. Alas, "A Man in Full" lacks even a touch of redeeming atmospherics. Essentially, it's a 742-page comic strip, with trite sidebars such as "Epictetus in the Alameda County Jail." Don't miss the movie!

Rating:
Summary: It's not quite a FOUR, but definately 3.5 Stars = 7/10
Review: "A Man in Full" deserves praise on the quality of writing alone. The plot is engaging, the characters hard-to-forget, and the subtext insightful. The only chink in the armor of this book's merit is an ending and epilogue that feels rushed given the novel's steady, rhythmatic build to climax.

I would consider five stars to be on par with a literary masterpiece. Four stars would be relative to Wolfe's own "Bonfire of the Vanities." This book doesn't quite measure up, but is well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Best
Review: I have reached literary nirvana with Tom Wolfe's outrageous, hilarious take on the 1990's, "A Man in Full". This is a masterpiece, with dead-on characterizations, no-holds-barred satire and discussion-provoking social commentary.

Just the characters' names alone are priceless - Raymond Peepgas, Roger Too White, and Charlie Croker among them. Everyone is knocked here: the ego-inflated developer, the social climbing lawyer, the trophy wife, the pampered athlete. Sentences are worth reading two and three times to digest their full wonderfulness. No one can turn a phrase like Wolfe.

Okay, the ending seems a little rushed. But events tie together in satisfying fashion, and I for one was sorry to see the novel end, even after 741 pages. It's the Great American Novel of the decade.

Rating:
Summary: A work of social,economic,racial insight and bad ending
Review: Tom Wolfe is always entertaining and like any novelist of the first rank, insures that the reader will truly learn something about something. The work is centered on a developer, real estate magnate former football hero at Georgia Tech of years past who parlays his regional smarts into a fortune that has been pyramidded by debt and he is about to lose it all. Wolfe is absorbed in the work with "massive chests, powerful hands, wrists,forearms,muscular backs," in his male leads as well as a facination with style and manners of all classes of Blacks/nee African Americans. It is marvelously readable to the last thirty pages whens it becomes obvious that Wolfe cannot resolve how to close it out. There are people in the book that deserve comeuppance while the main hero Charlie Croker is hardly a prospect for an evangelistic career and certainly not one to become an enlightened purveyor of Stoic thought.