Rating: Summary: Amazon purchase saves 30% on 70% of a novel. Review: The 30% savings via Amazon compensates for the last 200 pages where Wolfe puts forth 70% effort. It is as if Wolfe had to go to the bathroom, but his publisher would not let him leave the typewriter until the novel was finished. Please let us have an ending as well thought out as the majority of the book, or just have Wolfe stop in midsentence on page 502 and type "GOOD GOD THATS ENOUGH". "In Full" is a page turner, but the plodding, muddled end smacks of a 15 year old on his first date who suddenly finds himself "on third base", nervously sweating the question "Now what am I supposed to do?"
Rating: Summary: Bonfire It's Not. Review: 'Bonfire of the Vanities' was a book that was made extraordinarily rich by Wolfe's detail descriptions of places and events. Unfortunately, 'A Man In Full' gives you the impression that Wolfe listed 200 things he wanted to describe and then wrote a book to showcase those descriptions. It is boring, long, and pompous. I won't give it away to anyone I know because I don't want them to get mad at me.
Rating: Summary: Another Bonfire--Not Review: I just loved Bonfire of the Vanities. I read it several years ago, and still think of it often (Master of the Universe!!! I have days like that!!). I was positively relishing the thought of A Man in Full. I bought it and deliberately kept myself from reading it for a couple of weeks just so I could look forward to it. Then when I finally started in--Yuck. I put it down in the middle in disgust. The characters were so completely unappealing that I didn't want to spend time with them. I forced myself to pick the book up again and finish. The last 300 pages were not so bad. Maybe if the book were a little shorter it would be more fun.
Rating: Summary: Disappointing - a testament to powerful book PR machines! Review: Wolfe attempted to write the novel capturing the mood of the 90's, but perhaps his own lack of writing depth best exemplified the shallowness of this past decade. Wolfe's strength is his power of observation and conveying this in words. The book is strongest in these short moments: dinner at the Plantation, Conrad in jail, etc. However, the rest of the book never gets rolling and never engages the reader. Crocker's dilemma is hardly a situation on which to rest a 700-page novel. And if the book was less a comment on today's society, but a vignette to demonstrate the principles of Stoicism, it failed as well. The salty air of the Hamptons and heat of the Georgia summer must have gotten to Tom. Having enjoyed Wolfe's work in the past, I only hope this is not his last.
Rating: Summary: A sweeping, satirical look at late 20th life in U.S. Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read, and I've read many of them. Through characters that span the spectrum of American life, Wolfe explpores the moral/spiritual gaps that develop in a society with so much wealth, freedoms and opportunities. As the story develops, those that have the most wealth and power become increasing miserable, while a principled young idealist discovers happiness through an ancient spiritual code. This book is significant in that it reaffirms that a spiritual aspect to life is a necessary means to achieving happiness regardless of one's wealth or freedom. Character, it seems, still matters in late 20th century America.
Rating: Summary: Couldn't pick it up after I put it down. Review: Too many words. And too many repeated. Like loins and megalomaniachal. That nobody sees Martha is either because she's a woman and her loins are too old, or she's not black. If she were black Wolff would have pointed her out for us, again and again. Wouldn't develop her but sure would point her out. Instead we read over and over about nobody seeing Martha. Charlie the blow-hard on the other hand can't get enough page time. Even though we understand him just by looking at the cover. He's a caricature out of central casting with an "I'M A SYMBOL LOOK AT ME" bad knee.Don't bother reading past the earthquake. Conrad isn't the only one to lose his book in a fault. What a cowardly way to avoid a true test of Conrad's mettle. What fate awaited him in the pod that Wolff was spared having to write? Earthquakes occur when you're losing at Monopoly and you're ten years old. Is that the only reason Conrad and Croker Foods was in California? Why not coastal Georgia and have a hurricane? Oh yeah, that Hiasson thing, wouldn't want to be plagarizing. Though it would have been funnier throughout. Something about the critics applauding the "sprawling social commentary" bugged me. Peepgas owned a Hyundai. Conrad had a Honda Excel. How did that mistake get past the publisher, was that Wolff's poor understanding of cheap cars, or the editor's? In other words if Wolff got that wrong what else is wrong that I can't verify. Like those lingo's he seemed so proud to be a master of.
Rating: Summary: Wonderful characters in great settings, but very poor ending Review: Tom Woolf can so vividly draw me into scenes I continue to experience them long after putting the book down. There are scenes from Bonfire of the Vanities that I still FEEL after ten years. Woolf has once again captured this art in A Man in Full. He develops multi-dimensional characters and places them in scenes that are at the same time sad and very funny. Unfortunately, he finishes it all off with a pitiful ending. The resolution of the novel's main tension was shallow at best and Woolf uses a short epilogue to quickly tie up all loose ends. It made me think that Woolf quit and someone else wrote the last 150 pages. If you can get over the ending, the experience is definitely worth your time.
Rating: Summary: Entertaining and Forgetable Review: I give the book three stars for entertainment value, but that's all. Wolfe has a talent for portraying the quirks of American society in a funny and insightful way. This makes his non-fiction so great. His novels, though, seem to be nothing more than Wolfe reporting on situations that, out of necessity, happen to be fictional. The ending eliminates the chance that this book can be anything more than entertainment. I wonder if a flood or other such natural disaster destroyed the manuscript of the original ending, forcing Wolfe to throw together the ending we got in a couple of hours in order to make deadline.
Rating: Summary: so well devloped characters the ending is like life - what Review: I think Tom is such an honest and hysterically funny observer of the social scene and also a kind one that the end is only disappointing because life is ongoing and he is reflecting that in his work. I read it in one sitting and was only sorry it didnt continue for what life thanks Tom . YOUre a man in full.
Rating: Summary: 100 pages of content written on 750 Review: A was extremely dissapointed in this #1 bestseller by Tom Wolfe. You could easily skip chapter after chapter and not miss a beat. Meaningless characters were overdeveloped and many subplots should have been left. I was so pround of myself for struggling through all 742 pages just to be greeted with a terrible ending.
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