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A Man in Full

A Man in Full

List Price: $28.95
Your Price: $19.69
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I'm sorry I wasted my time (and money).
Review: Is Mr. Wolfe kidding? This is one of the least satisfying reading experiences I have ever had. He loses steam at the end and wraps up all the very loose ends in the plot with a conversation between two of the characters. I don't blame him. I couldn't figure out much relationship between the two stories he is telling, either. He has filled the book with almost unreadable dialect. No one since Mark Twain has done dialect well, and even he used it sparingly. This book is a classic reminder to beware of hype.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good, fun reading
Review: The first impression of this book may be it's length -- over 800 pages. It's a fast read, but the length gives the reader time to enjoy Tom Wolfe's prose. Following in some of the same style as Bonfire of the Vanities, you may get a few laughs out of every chapter, but probably not as much as in Bonfire. The characters are written colorfully and can really make you cheer for them. Some people have complained that the ending was bad, but what could you expect? I thought of many other endings that would have been more satisfying, but this ending was different than anyone could have imagined. A lot of fun.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: a good book until the end, ... it fell off a cliff, ...
Review: I have enjoyed everything by Tom Wolfe and this book was no exception. I enjoyed most of the character development, the vignettes and stories, the drama and suspense. However, the ending was so terribly disappointing. It was as though Mr. Wolfe simply got tired of writing and decided to wrap things up, .... and he didn't do a very good job. I regret reading the last ten pages. Better he would have left me to my own fantasies and conclusions about the character. A good piece of work gone to hell.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Stoics might also say that less is more.
Review: Wolfe's considerable powers of observation and description are exceeded only by his insatiable desire to display them. He dallies so much in the middle that the reader nervously watches the supply of remaining pages dwindle wondering when the plot lines will begin to intersect. Even the climactic scenes are cluttered with elaborate yet forgettable set-ups that the reader has by that point learned to pass over in search of a morsel of actual plot to chew on.

The very end, ironically, cries for lengthier treatment -- or better yet, complete and untidy exclusion. Instead we're left to eavesdrop on a ridiculous plot wrap-up conversation straight out of "Charlie's Angels." I'm glad I got the Amazon 40% discount since that's apparently how much had been lopped off the back of my version.

Still, the social messages of "A Man in Full" are extremely thought-provoking and entertaining. Further enjoyment is gained from imagining the real Atlanta (or the real fake one, I suppose) recoil in horror from the public display of the city's black roots -- in it's blonde hair, that is.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good build-up to a VERY weak ending
Review: This book was enjoyable, but I feel it could have been a lot better. Most chapters were very good, and several were outstanding. But after pg. 690 or so, Wolfe took the easy wrap-up style to end what could have been his best work yet. The ending was a big disappointment.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Glad it was a library book - All I lost was time!
Review: This book left me with the same feeling as when I watch an over-hyped movie on t.v. and then think, "Gee, I'm glad I didn't pay to see that. As a writer, this book was a depressing waste of my time. If it truly took Mr. Wolfe 10 years to write this, I'll never make it! I didn't like the characters, his knowledge of Atlanta doesn't make me feel like he knows the city and the all the repetition, repetition, repetition of phrases and lyrics was trying. The book could have been more compact without the needless descriptions of everyone's wardrobes. I didn't feel like I got to know the people, but I knew what they were wearing and what they smelled like. Just tell us the story, don't tell us the story and then explain what you've just said. I think readers know the slang he was using, and if not would have a pretty good idea. After a long passage about "da hood" Mr. Wolfe felt it necessary to explain everything which had transpired. Totally unnecessary. I recommend the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - these were written by the same person?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Awful. And he misspelled "Freaknik".
Review: That's the only word for it. I spent most of my life in Atlanta, and I have no clue what city Wolfe's writing about, because it sure isn't Atlanta. I've never even met anyone who'd been to a debutante ball or whatever that is. Wolfe oversimplifies Atlanta, turning it into some "Gone With The Wind" ripoff.

All I can say is - I've never seen anything like the Atlanta he describes. And I lived there.

Tom Wolfe's writing is clever for about the first 10 pages. Afterwards, it's like driving nails into your forehead.

And one last detail - anyone, and I mean anyone, who's lived in Atlanta will know what Freaknik is, and how much contraversy surrounds it. But on page 1, Wolfe misspells it. For somebody who's so concerned with accuracy and local color, he sure is sloppy.

This isn't satire - this is torture.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Depressing and cynical, a sad view of human nature.
Review: While this book is a quick and easy read, it reflects a very cynical view of human nature. "A Man in Full" could have been written by Thomas Hobbes. While critics claim the book is an accurate depiction of American society in the 1990s, a careful and honest reader will see that Wolfe fails to take into account the good side of Americans, describing only greed, selfishness, and self-pity. Americans are undoubtedly greedy and selfish, but they are also (perhaps paradoxically) kind and generous. Wolfe needs to look outside his narrow mind and see the good side of the American character. Perhaps then, like the Grinch, his pea-sized heart will grow and he will put his (undisputed) talent to work writing the truth about twentieth-century America--selfishness and generosity can (and do) exist together, and more often than not we care just as much about each other as we do about ourselves.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I didn't find the ending that bad!
Review: Many readers seem to hate the ending a lot. But I actually liked it better than BONFIRE's. Tom Wolfe is not for everybody. There are some very dramatic turns, but all in all his storyline and characters are far too realistic to form a typical novel where every sentence needs a purpose, every other page has a crafted plot twist, and everything gets wrapped up nicely at the end. I think he did a fairly good job with what happened to the numerous characters. But the real enjoyment of the book is relishing the descriptions, the dialogue, the satire, and everything else that makes Tom Wolfe's writing so special. Two or three more pages on Croker at the very end, and a bigger role for his ex-wife, and I would have given this book five stars. (Doesn't the Concourse carry her name? Just a thought.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The fastest 700+ page read you'll ever make.
Review: What Wolfe has done is slice through our culture, exposing the rotten core of it which exists in so many places. At the same time, he allows us to see that the heroic can come from the least likely sources. The tale isn't one full of easy vengeance, not even just desserts. Still, I couldn't help but smile when things somehow work out for the cast of down on their luck players. Does that say something about us as well, that we feel for people who really haven't earned the right?

Wolfe exposes so much of our cultural malaise with his dead-on accounts of life in prison, the work-out room at Plannersbanc, even the living room of the snake-bitten warehouse worker Conrad Hensley. But there remains this oh so American optimism when it's all said and done. Like the unbridled lust of the stud race hourse, our desire to forgive, to re-invent ourselves and to find the good in nearly anyone who is suffering will not be held in check.

We may not be pretty according to Wolfe, but deep down we're alright. So is this book.


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