A Man in Full

Rating:
Summary: A Grand Epic
Review: This review is meant to help you decide whether or not you should read this book.

If you like epic novels. Novels that are long, detailed, wander at times but tell a wonderful story you will like this book. If you like down and dirty, just get to the plot reading you will not like this at all.

I loved Far Paviliions by MM Kaye. I hated Beloved and The English Patient. Tom Wolf is easy to read but he makes you think. This book is easy to follow but is much more than a plot and some characters. I hated the main character at the beginning but loved him at the end.

The book is a fast read. Don't expect Hardy or Melville. It is modern American fiction written by a very entertaining author.

Rating:
Summary: A man three quarters full
Review: I loved reading many of the other reviews for this book. There is such a great variety of strong feeling that I can only hope it was what Wolfe was after. He certainly got under a lot of people's skin. The principle objections to this book, that the ending is weak and the story is too long and meandering, while both being true, don't really undermine its great strengths - wonderful writing, larger than life (though 'real') characters and a plot that not only highlights numerous real social issues but shows how they tend to rub up against one another in unexpected ways. In other words, there is a messiness to even the thematic aspects of the book that seems to be intentional and true to life.

Wolfe can't help but exaggerate. That is what satirists do. Yet those who complain that the characters aren't real or are stereotypes seem to really mean that they don't like these people; 'real' people would be, I guess, someone they could identify with. Yet, if Wolfe had chosen Donald Trump or Ross Perot as his hero, could his description be any more 'believeable' or less stereotypic than his portrayal of Charlie Croker? Seems to me that the rich complexity of ego, selfishness and lack of self awareness that come to the fore in his characters (including those in Bonfire) is a very human, very common and very real thing. We are all unbelieveable stereotypes to some, but that doesn't make us less real.

And I especially liked the reviewer who starts his review by saying 'Too many words.' This is so like the scene in 'Amadeus' when the King says to Mozart that his compositions have 'too many notes.' For those of us who love the bite and flash of Wolfe's writing, there can never be too many words, even when they don't add up to the full measure that Wolfe is striving for.

Rating:
Summary: a wild ride
Review: There are parts of this book that are great fun and a pleasure to read,it does run alittle long and takes a bizarre plot twist which reminds me of Steven Kings "rose madder" to a lesser degree.I fell in love with the Charles Croker character something you couldn't do if you had to deal with him in real life.But he was too comical,you will get a kick out of him, and others as well

Rating:
Summary: what the dickens?
Review: you've got to hand it to tom wolfe with this book. the scope is bigger than anyone else writing today and is earily, yet not unpleasantly, reminiscent of the most sprawling works of charles dickens. bleak house for the next century. let's hope hollywood doesn't even try to get its hands on this baby. should be compulsory for everyone to read wolfe - especially a man in full. bravo.

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: Although this book is not for the casual reader, it packs a fantastic wallop of details across the American continent. Wolfe has written convincing portraits of what happens in prisons, in the elite rich neighborhoods in Atlanta and also at other levels of society. His characters are arresting, and I personally found it difficult to set this book down. I loved the ending. I am a fan of Wolfe so I may be biased.....

Rating:
Summary: Excellent choice
Review: Excellent choice. This is one of the few books I've read which explores the male prespective. It is exiciting at every turn. I could not put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Complete Pageturner
Review: Perhaps one of the best books I've ever read! Wolfe tells 3 or 4 stories at once, and they're all enjoyable!

Rating:
Summary: A Man in Full-enrapturing
Review: When I find a novel that I really love I savor each sentence and paragraph and dread the last page like I dreaded the end of a summer vacation when I was a kid. No analysis needed-just open the first page and slip into the story. Someone asked me what the story was about and I realized I didn't know. Maybe when I give up and turn the last page I'll come to the surface and think about it.

Rating:
Summary: A book in full; perhaps too full
Review: The story seems complex when considering all the various characters, however, in relation to events it is quite simple. For 700+ pages I am not satisified with an average book. Wolfe does have an interesting story, but he takes far too long to tell it. Epictetus is used as a source for much of the character development and events, which is probably the strongest point the novel has. The ending comes when he realizes (and that Epictetus is nearly out of advice) this and tries to tie it all up in record time. If you get that far, you will just be glad that it time to move on.

Rating:
Summary: A novel, half full or doubly stuffed....
Review: The jacket blurbs on Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full" resound with the gravitas of praise from all the usual suspects: eminent voices of "The New York Times,""The Wall Street Journal," et al. Given its bloated length and absurd disunities of character and plot, one suspects that these breathless accolades must stem either from A) four decades of Wolfe's éclat (and the white suits) having blinded the critical eyes, or from B) these cover snippets having been very heavily edited--unlike the novel itself. Either way, the tale limps along, only occasionally reflecting the glory days of Wolfe's productive past -- much like its "ramblin'-wreck-from- Georgia-Tech" main character moves through Atlanta's "New South" social, political, and corporate worlds.

Be ready for stereotyped characters, plot lines that disappear without a trace, disparate scenarios that struggle futilely to find connection, the most improbable--and idiotic--plot denouement I've witnessed in many years, and an insufferably supercilious attitude from the author. Oh, and pull out your old college text on Epictetus, renowned Greek stoic, since, evidently, Mr. Wolfe did about halfway through composing this mess.

I, a confirmed Wolfe fan, am disappointed at both the inferior quality of this work and the apparent cowardice of the critics unwilling to state the sorry truth.