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Summary: Wolfe - The 20th Century Dickens
Review: Another wonderful book from Tom Wolfe. One hell of a poweful tale. In a couple of places, the narrative is so strong, I had to put the book down to draw breath!. The ideal antidote to Bonfire of the Vanities. My only complaint - for the last month its taken over my life.
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Summary: Tom Wolfe is my new hero
Review: I got this book on a lark. I have now read 5 books by Wolfe. All are great, but A Man in Full is the best. Atlanta, Georgia comes to life in full! We are treated to a grand allegory on the scale of a Jonathan Swift tale. Charlie Croker starts as Gulliver and ends as a Lilliputian. His wife (the second one) makes you wish that you could do it too. A boy with breasts! Ha!If you have to get only one book this year this is the one!!
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Summary: An interesting odyssey through American society
Review: As an alien to the US I read this book as a way to understand American society as seen from remote Denmark. The portrait that Wolfe gave me of his country is in a way; alarming. The character that moved me the most was Conrad Hensley and his struggle to follow his ideals. I would like to have heard much more of his story, and how he ended up getting out on probation. The ending leaves you with a desire to also know more about Charlie Crokers' evangelist adventure. And it was a little blurry to me what really happened to Ray Peepgass - did he succeed in getting away with that syndicate thing? But beside from the somewhat confusing ending, I must say that the way that Tom Wolfe put his thoughts into words is unique and leaves every wanna-be writer jealous.
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Summary: Horse studs, metal knees, shotgunning quails..a man's book!
Review: It's not easy to see ourselves as others see us. Yet, Wolfe's book gives the reader a vivid description of the older, previously successful businessman "Croker", who, as a former athlete, always had his way. He is envied, belittled, admired, hated, scorned and revered as more than a man. The accompanying characters of the lithe 2nd wife, the broad shouldered 1st wife, the upwardly mobile black lawyer, the schrewd Atlanta mayor and the hardworking naive laborer all see "Croker" and themselves in different ways. As a orthopedic surgeon, who has hunted quail on horseback, I was amazed at the richness of Wolfe's description of the knee replacement and the quail hunt. With so little time to read, I didn't want to waste my time with another fluff book. Like it or not, this book is the real stuff. It represents an epicurean five course meal and sometimes....just for fun...it beats the heck out of fast food.
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Summary: Long, sometimes interesting, poor ending....
Review: This book is typical of the novels that are being thrust upon us these days. The characters are at times very interesting, but mostly over-developed yet still unfamiliar. That is quite a trick. The book is also typical of today's novels in that the ending is weak, implausable, unsatisfying, and just plain stupid. I expected more from Tom Wolfe. Why can't anyone end a book? It is so irritating to enjoy a book only to have the ending ruin it. Zeus? Come on. Just dumb!
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Summary: The Kool Aid Acid Test Man Strikes Again!!!
Review: Wolfe's best book since The Electric Acid Kool Aid Test. At first glance, this novel is little more than an entertaining read. Delve deeper, Gentle Reader, and find the message. An allegory for our times, A Man in Full plays out in Kafka-esque fashion. The Croker character and the Pimpgas character share an interplay that is both Swiftian and reminiscent of Voltaire at his best. The upfront information regarding Turpm'time brings to mind our inner fears. I would suggest a side-by-side comparison with Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion. Trust me, Dear Reader, this book will one day be taught in upper-level literature classes.
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Summary: what a piece of rubbish!!!
Review: Thank God for Benjamin Franklin and a curse on Tom "the copywriter for the rich" Wolfe! If I had to buy this book I would use it as an anchor for my cabin cruiser! Does anybody realize that he is nothing more than a jerk-off artist for ersatz prose? Who is buying this book? Good Lord....it was nothing but a tome about rich people...who apparently have some kind of weird allure for this foppish "writer"! After diligently trying to read this potboiler for 100 pages, I realized I could get through two pages by just reading one line of lame dialogue. Give it up, Tom. You have nothing to say except "I have to meet my deadline and suck in the public to support my increasingly diminished reputation. When you think of it.....you never had anything to say in the first place! As one good writer remarked: " if someone buys my book, its the highest compliment I could receive". Well, Tommy-Boy, I went to the library and saved myself a ton of money! Zeus is on the loose, indeed!
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Summary: Bummer Ending
Review: Loved the whole book until the end. That prologue had a sit-com kind of feel, where the cast gets together at the end, shares the moral lesson, and has a laugh at the dog's expense... And though the ending doesn't detract from the fantastic scenes and language of the rest of the book, it's not going to make the all-time list (where I thought it was headed)...
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Summary: 727 pages about people you would never want to know!!
Review: Maybe I just don't get it but after reading this very long book, I felt a little depressed. I know Tom Wolfe is a master of social satire and for the first few chapters, I was fascinated at his humorous portrayal of Charlie Croker, the cracker from Georgia who became a mega real estate developer. And Wolfe has the talent to pinpoint human foibles and pretentions oh so well. The problem was that I couldn't find a character who I really liked or identified with. So slogging through all the black rap talk and watching all the characters show their nasty sides was amusing but just wasn't enough. I liked the book but I didn't love it.
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Summary: Try to ignore these characters
Review: How does Wolfe do it? As in Bonfire and the Right Stuff, he creates characters with as much life and personality as anyone this side of Owen Meany Gus McCall or Rabbit Angstrom. These are, as always, "arrogant, obnoxious, impertient" folks he peoples with which he peoples his world, and yet I can't help but be drawn in, and care more about each of them with each passing page. The quoted description referred to the Cannon, of course, who seems to be this book's exception that proves the rule. In the Right Stuff, it was the scientists we never warmed to, just as in Bonfire, for me at least, it was the DA, constantly flexing those sternomastocloids. I harkened back to that with the early descriptions of Cap'm Charlie here, but that didn't last long. As he did with Sherman McCoy (and even, to a degree, John Glenn), Wolfe managed to build a hero I cared about and wanted to follow out of what appeared at first to be pretty disagreeable material. Roger Too White ebbs and flows, but is as real as anyone in Bonfire, and even relatively minor characters like Peepgas and Mayor Jordan have hilarious and instructive moments. And Conrad? Conrad was pure genius. He had me from his introduction, with his grandly pathetic life's dream of a "condo in Danville" (I've been to Danville. A condo in Danville is no Turpemtine), through all of the outrageous plot twists that got him to the end. Fantasy? So what? These twists (particulary the jailbreak), fantastic or not, were pure deus ex machina -- and therefore particularly apporiate literary devices to apply to a Zeuss-quoting Okie on the run. Wolfe has been accused (repeatedly) of leaving us unsatisfied with the ending, but even that is more a testimony to the strength of his characters than anything. With people like these, living breathing people we cared about, what ending would have satisfied? I'd keep reading as long as he wanted to tell me their story.
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