Rating: 
Summary: How long could he have made it??
Review: This was the most drawn out book I have ever read, and I read alot. I like wolfe's work, usually! If there's an abridged version, I would recommend that. Save YOUR time!!
Rating: 
Summary: Real world real estate deals, and southern quail hunts
Review: Given to me as a Christmas gift, I questioned whether I had the interest to attempt a 742 page book. While I found the book very interesting, and true to life in many respects, I was disappointed at the ending. Anticipating mulitple scenerios for the conclusion, none of them materalized. Since my profession is in commercial banking, I did find the Charlie Coker storyline interesting and easy to follow.
Rating:
Summary: Fun to read (for a while); ending bit the dust
Review: Wolfe does a great job of capturing all the little nuances of contemporary life and incorporating them into an interesting story. His characters are the type of people that if you knew them in real life, you'd really wish you didn't. But Wolfe's writing style really draws you in - - it engages. Until the end. The ending was boring, unbelievable, and didn't seem to flow from the entire book. After spending 600 pages developing the Croker character as a completely intractable, hard headed man, the guy does a total about face and becomes a religious fanatic. In about a day. I still enjoyed this book for the most part. But don't hold your breath for an exciting end note.
Rating: 
Summary: suggested reading for Bill and Hillary
Review: Tom needs a good editor. Despite being much too long, I did enjoy it. I recommend it to our egomaniac President and his popular wife. There are lessons to be learned in this tale of hubris. If you really want to enjoy a great book by Tom Wolfe, try Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.
Rating:
Summary: Great except for the last 40 pages
Review: Incredibly well written, well researched, plausible within reason, yet the ending is dissappointing. Instead of ending with a bang, it ends with a wimper. There is no resolution of anything. It sort of drifts off into no where. No good guys, no bad guys. Just a lot of confused and misguided players. Sad to see such a well-written book end so poorly.
Rating:
Summary: Come on folks...it was an entertaining story...admit it!
Review: I live down the street from the Santa Rita jail. I have been a "Crash and Burn" wage slave. I have seen some of these "good ol boys" in action. I have questioned the day to day B.S. just like Charlie Croker. This was an entertaining story,and isn't that why we buy these kinds of books?
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat entertains
Review: Once again, Wolfe ceases to amaze me. Even though this isn't a story that'll stick in your memories, and the boring out in the middle of nowhere Southerners, I found this to be quite entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful 90%. Capitulation at the end.
Review: Mr. Wolfe is new to me. This book shows his immense talent for developing characters and fascinating plots. I read until my eyes were bleary. But the ending is pathetic. Maybe Mr. Wolfe needed to consider earlier how to bring his plot to an end. So, ignore the ending. This is a book worth 90% of the read. I recommend it with the caveat that the ending is trivially ridiculous compared with the rest of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: High Hopes Dashed
Review: After the success of Bonfire, I had hoped that this book would be wonderful, even one of the great ones of our time. Not so. Instead of a recovery from his well-publicized psychological problems, for Wolfe this book seems more like therapy. He covers over 700 pages with cardboard characters, soap opera dialogue, B-movie action scenes, and formula-driven story lines, but only occasionally succeeds in compelling my attention. Perhaps the main problem is that among all the egos and libidos there is not one character who is complex or sympathetic. Required reading for cocktail parties, but otherwise a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: An insult to all Southerners!
Review: I thought that Wolfe was better than this trash! Both "Bonfire" and "Right Stuff" were much, much better. Having spent a number of years in Atanta, I know that the city is not perfect, but Wolfe attampted to cross an insane asylum and a prison camp, and it didn't work very well. The characters were shallow (at best). The book had little redeeming social (or otherwise) value. I'll take him off my list of "authors to read".
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