Rating: 
Summary: Good book, crappy ending.
Review: I received this book as a gift. At first, I was totally put off by its length. Once I started reading it, though, I couldn't put it down. I found the characters interesting and the situations intriguing. As a Georgia Tech alum, I enjoyed the material about Tech and Atlanta. I found myself totally swept up in the book, choosing to continue reading it instead of doing other things. The stage was set for a tremendous ending, and then... blah. What a disappointment! It's like someone else wrote the ending, or Wolfe didn't have time to finish it, or something. From the press conference on, the book just didn't deliver. What a shame.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing new learned. But a definite storyteller's book
Review: I found the descriptions and the way of Mr. Wolfe's writing to be entertaining and fun. His book did not teach me much in the way other books have. But it did make me read its lengthy pages with its gripping story. A Man In Full is a storyteller's book. A nice comment on society of the upper class, but nothing catostrophic revealed. Sometimes overly verbose and repetitive. But even with a minor fault (and what book doesn't have them?) it was a fast and interesting read.
Rating: 
Summary: About as timely as Big Hair and Parachute Pants
Review: Tom Wolfe's new novel is travesty in a time warp. A novel started 10 years ago should have been finished in two years -- all his premises are now cliched -- who cares!! The average American up on public issues could have written the same plot. Not to mention all the help he credits. 10 years for that! Just typical of a bunch of guys sitting around talking about how great it's going to be. Wolfe attempts to create timeless Shakespearean character(s) but ends with characters and a plot as timely as big hair and parachute pants. John Updike's review, "...a book that defies you not to buy it," is the politically correct review that Tom Wolfe deserves in recognition of his earlier achievements. It's nice to see that there are gentlemen among novelists, I, however, cannot be so kind.
Rating:
Summary: Buchhead brillantly displayed by the Master of Storytelling
Review: After reading the Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff, Wolfe is my nr. 1! A Man in Full resembles the Bonfire a lot. I do remember that also the bonfire has a bit disappointing end so does a MIF. However the first 400 pages are terrific. I read the book in a couple of days on the beach in Puerto Rico and often I had to explain to my company why I was lauching in myself. Especially the scenes in Oakland (Suicidal Freezer and in the desperate scene with the towed away car are magnificient. Also the workouts from Charlie by PlannersBanc are very good. I think Wolfe is at his best describing ultimate painful situations. I think this novel is a must read for anybody!!
Rating: 
Summary: Why use one word when ten will do?
Review: The character development was interesting, and not at all difficult to keep apace. The plot line, or lines, has enough swirl in and out of focus to allow both the development of parallel themes, while reminding the reader that other things were going on, too. I would have enjoyed the book more if Mr. Wolfe had left something to the imagination besides the ending. Every scene, every line, even the accent of the main character, was described to a level of detail that only took 125 pages to become boring. Mr. Wolfe should appreciate his audience more, and regard their intelligence more highly. My lasting impresssion will be that I was insulted by a over-bearing, over-burdensome novel, that I wish I had not paid as much for it. It only needed to be about 325 pages long.
Rating:
Summary: BONFIRE WAS BETTER
Review: When I started reading this book I thought it had potential to be as enjoyable as Bonfire. I was mistaken. Actually, the last two hundred pages were almost torture. The conclusion was terrible. Don't be fooled by all the hype!
Rating:
Summary: I'VE READ TOM WOLFE AND HE'S NO DICKENS
Review: SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT. is it possible to simply get tired of wolfe's literary pyrotechnics? but to call him a modern day Dickens--as some reviewers have--is a travesty. when i think of all the talented fiction writers who never get the hype he does, it is even worse. his constant weaving back and forth made no character coherant for any length of time; his women were all cardboard cut out stereotypes and so much of his observations were about surface attributes or non attributes, such as nymphet abs vs. over-the-hill flab. instead of satire, it sounds like hackneyed thoughts of his own. he should have grown up by now.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as "Bonfire"; key plot-line bothersome
Review: After almost a decade to come up with a great book, like "Bonfire of the Vanities" (my all-time favorite), Mr. Wolfe disappointed me with this book, mainly because of high expectations. One plot thread really bothered me. Conrad's crime, conviction, sentencing, and its aftermath appeared to transpire in only a couple of months. That's not even close to being realistic, and strikes me as an extremely artificial and flawed device.
Rating:
Summary: He cops out in the end...
Review: A good read, but even Wolfe's most devoted admirers really must not call this high art. It's artful, yes; shows craft, although I'll quibble with that as well. The characters are indivualized and iconic--kinda works, kinda doesn't. But I read it straight through in the few days immediately post-purchase, although I never did get all the way through Vanities (which I had also purchased upon publication). But what a cop-out epilogue! Maybe such reportage disguised as cocktail talk worked in Wolfe's New Journalism days (indeed it did, say I!),but we've just invested hours and hours in 700 pages of big personalities and big ideas and big money and big prose, and we're gonna settle for a Psycho-like epilogue? (I mean the original; I haven't seen 1998's, but have heard the psychobabble at the end is now truncated.) Next time he publishes, I'll wait to purchase Tom's dapper portrait on the paperback edition.
Rating:
Summary: Good Atlanta Travelogue
Review: I must admit I read a few reviews before reading this book, and one phrase rang true to my take on this book; it was an amusing travelogue on Atlanta. I recognized most of the places mentioned and enjoyed reading about my city. It was fun reading a non-Atanta native's take on Our Town. But, oh yeah, the plot and the characters. The premise about the rape baffled me and was completely unbelievable and untenable. Was that the only way to bring these characters together? Next time I'll stick with Frommer's guide.
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