Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Mirror of Our Society
Review: I really liked this book a lot. Wolfe is very smart, and what makes him unique is his ability to write characters that reveal the egos and characters of real people, people alive now, 1998. He lays bare our social politics, especially around the race issues between black and white. I read through some of the reviews in here, and came to the conclusion that these reviews tell you more about the person writing them than they do about Wolfe's book. So I guess I will just say that I loved this book, and if you are concerned about race relations and social problems you will find it amusing and thought provoking.
Rating: 
Summary: Good entertaining Social satire
Review: I normally don't finish books over 500 pages but I did polish this one off. It was entertaining but the characters seemed somewhat one-dimensional and the plot too similar to "Bonfire" with the characters southernized.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, solid portrayal of late twentieth-century America
Review: Tom Wolfe has written an excellent book about greed, corruption, the country's racial climate, and how people often don't say and do what they really mean. The ending is a bit of a disappointment, but it's a great story from start to finish. Normally I put books down for a few days and start again, but this one I read from start to finish. It was a great diversion from the Congressional coup action!
Rating: 
Summary: Expressive writing doesn't keep it from being boring.
Review: It is so long it feels padded. I couldn't make it past the unconvincing scene that described Wes showing Roger the real Atlanta - this scene was intended to edify the reader not Roger. Roger was a life long Atlantan, educated, sophisticated and an active member of the professional community - he certainly didn't need a lecture ( a long, long lecture) from Wes. As for the novels comic moments, the parts with Charlie Croker were funny but most of the other characters (men only - the women were cyphers) were depressing.
Rating:
Summary: Good start, bad finish
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Man in Full for 95 percent of the 700 plus pages. I had worked for The Atlanta Constitution 25 years ago and our daughter had worked there recently, so the Atlanta he pictured was familiar to me. I believed the developers and politicians, the racial tensions, etc. They all rang true. BUT, nearing the end, it was if Wolfe ran out of gas and time and handed the finish over to a teenager to complete. I didn't buy the ending, not only what happened to all the principal characxters (I won't reveal all that) but also how it was written. For example, Wolfe has one major character ask another about what is transpiring in the life of still other major characters. There's no way he wouldn't know. Wolfe had to tie up loose ends, but he could have been much, much more subtle. Did I feel betrayed? No, I still enjoyed the book. I just was disappointed in Wolfe. He's better than that. He proved it in the first 95 percent of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Great characterization but ending was a bit of a cop-out
Review: I looked forward to this book with great anticipation, and relished just about every moment until the final 40 pages. By then I knew that the ending was to be anti-climactic or contrived, so I didn't finish it for 10 days--something I never do normally. It almost seemed like he had to cut the book off suddenly, and then wrap it up. But the characterizations along the way were just SUPERB! Got Atlanta very nicely, I thought, as well as bankers and b.s.ers. What marvelous work overall!
Rating:
Summary: Always leave your fans begging for more¿
Review: It's an old show business adage, and Tom Wolfe has it mastered. When I read "Bonfire" many years ago, I remember getting about 100 pages from the end and saying "Hey! There's not enough book left here to finish this story!" And I was right! When it ended, or at least when it stopped, I felt like I had just gone through some form of wicked literary foreplay.And now, he's done it again. Readers are going to want more. But, regardless, it was a stupendous read. It grabs you at the start, and rocks you all the way through. The comic moments were wonderfully created-I have a feeling a lot of businessmen are going to be asking for a "cactus" in their upcoming meetings. The only distraction to me was the fact that the story can't go into any room anywhere without describing in painful detail every facet of the furnishings, the designer, the cost, etc. right down to the $3,000 sugar bowl or the dead dracaena. The inevitable movie will be greatly anticipated. Remember the buzz after "Bonfire" came out? All the cocktail chat was speculation over who would be cast in the film. Then Brian De Palma puts Bruce Willis in the lead role and goofs around with the story. What a stinker! It was playing in the "Cinema 'n Brewhouses" two weeks after its opening weekend. Now we can start guessing who's going to play Charlie Crocker, Roger White, Fareek Fanon, Serena, et al. I'm voting for Tommy Lee Jones in the lead. Please, Mr. Wolfe, give the script to Oliver Stone this time!
Rating: 
Summary: An incredulous novel
Review: It was with great expectation that I bought and prepared to read A Man in Full. After three hundred and fifty rather tedious pages of character development, Mr. Wolfe finally nudges the story ever so slowly forward. With only 60 pages left the plot is still immature and despite exhaustive efforts, the characters are still transparent,their motivation unfathomable. The resolution of this epic (any novel over 700 pages) is totally unbelieveable and leaves the reader scratching his head. Unlike the more believeable though equally dislikeable characters in Bonfires of the Vanities, these people are too stereotypic. Then the book resolves with all the character acting out of character. Of the twenty five books I've read this year, the worst by far. While I live in the South now, I grew up in the Northeast. Not even my Northeastern cynicism is willing to buy into these archaic stereotypes.
Rating:
Summary: what a waste of time
Review: I was really looking forward to A MAN IN FULL but found it bloated, self-indulgent, and smugly boring. I can't wait to take my copy to The Strand (a second-hand book shop) so at least I can recover a portion of the cover price. The time wasted? Out the window...
Rating:
Summary: The Dark Side of Wolfe
Review: Tom Wolfe had always been on a pedastal for me--I read in awe of his way of writing. "A Man In Full," however, really changed that. Wolfe still has a magic with words and can be a quality writer, but...it is darker than anything else I've read by him, especially "Bonfire of the Vanities." It also took a long time to get interested in the story. So, as a warning to others, there are graphic Wolfe-isms of horses mating with a little help from their handlers, and jailhouse sex, body fluids, and violence. For me, the story itself could not withstand that, so I stopped reading about 2/3 through--it just wasn't that good.
|
