Rating: 
Summary: Why the Ending?
Review: The complex plots and colorful characters caught my interest from the first pages. The plots were reminicent of Bonfire in the best of ways and the characters were real. But why the ending?
Rating: 
Summary: TW reaches beyond his grasp.
Review: I looked forward to reading this novel after finding Bonfire of the Vanities somewhat amusing. However AMIF was a deep disappointment. I found the prose clumsy and the plotting overly contrived. TW clearly has little real contact with black America given that his use of African-American slang is consistently off and his attempts to recreate rap-rhymes were painful to read through. He simply lacks the experience and I suspect the skill, to pull off a credible story using the characters he has created. Also TW seems to equate cynicsm with balanced satire. I have rarely been as happy to finish reading a book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating characters
Review: I loved this book and was always interested to see what would happen next. The racial stuff got real old real fast.Conrad was by far my favorite character with Charlie a close second. The endinng was great and not what I expected. Despite it's length I recommend it to anyone who loves to read.
Rating:
Summary: A slow start, but then hold on for a wild ride!
Review: I usually have a hard time with books in which there are lots of "main" characters, but Tom Wolfe has a way of fleshing each of the people out to the point where I can visualize them, down to facial expressions. For anyone who has aspired to ride some scheme to financial riches, you're going to see a bit of yourself in this book, and maybe wince once or twice. I did, anyway. Likewise, the power brokers and poverty peddlers will find themselves skewered as well. All in all, an incredibly satisfying story. I put down the book comfortable that the cosmic scales of justice had balanced themselves nicely. The last 200 pages or so (of the hardcover) simply cannot be put down. I rarely find myself so completely hooked in a story, as I was when I found the wild arrangement of sub-plots finally tying into a perfect weave. Mr. Wolfe deserves congrats for this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Prodigeous
Review: I can't believe all the people with prodigeous arms, the women with prodigeous backs Wolfe writes about. There is very little imagination as he introduces new characters. His poor use of ebonics and slang is unwelcome, his phonetics for southern accents is silly. I should have read a spiderman comic.
Rating:
Summary: Firewood
Review: This book sat on the shelf for several months before I got around to it. Unfortunately, that's where it should have stayed. Wolfe appears to be a clueless wordsmith, weaving sometimes great prose into a meaningless fog. His characters are contrived and overblown, the story a tedious morass. If this is what Wolfe sees when he "observes" America, then perhaps he should visit an optometrist. Halfway through, I was so put off by the hateful cynicism that is Wolfe's excuse for satire that the book literally went into my wood stove.
Rating:
Summary: Missed the mark with this one
Review: What a disappointment! TW has really lost touch with society -- it is painfully obvious as he attempts to describe the black youth of today - obviously styled after what he's seen on television and film. As my English professor always told me, write what you know. Hard to get excited about. I had to put it away after wasting four hours trying to find something to make me want to turn the next page
Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed!
Review: I liked Bonfire of the Vanities a lot--it is one of my favorite books. So I looked forward to reading A Man in Full but I was really disappointed. I agree with the negative reviews. The characters--Charlie, Conrad--were somewhat interesting--but basically the whole thing seemed contrived, not very clever, depressing, and endless. One thing I learned from the book is that I don't ever want to live in or even visit Atlanta, or anywhere in Georgia for that matter.
Rating:
Summary: One star for the first page...
Review: John Cheever once said the only kind of book he could read was one in which he could "get past the first page." I saw southern gentlefolk riding to hounds or something and I completely withered. I think some books are best left un-read and un-reviewed by Yankees; Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is another. I'm going to leave y'all to your own devices, cause you just lose this Boston girl with the first whiff of mint julep and horse manure.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time with this one
Review: I was so disappointed with this book...with the characters, the plot, the setting, the length. By the time I finished it, I was angry that I'd wasted my time reading it. What a yawn.
| 
