Rating: Summary: Wolfe's writing is superlative, but the ending unrealistic. Review: Certainly Tom Wolfe's new novel is a must read. However, the ending leaves a lot to be desired. Wolfe did little to prepare the reader for a sermon-type finish to an otherwise interesting novel. Although the living of the wealthy, and the racial struggles of America today are portrayed in detail, Wolfe's final message does not cut it. Further, secondary characters are not given enough inner-descriptions to allow the reader to know them for what they really are.
Rating: Summary: Written with the next movie in mind. Review: After terrific focus on one of the great development jobs in creating a vivid central player, the last chapters fall off in dismissing "the man in full" to a truncated ending. The obligatory narrative rapid wrap up is handed off to lessor characters. The ending fizzles after all of those hard earned pages. We want more of Charlie.
Rating: Summary: A hugely ambitious panaromic view of modern America Review: Tom Wolfe is one of my favorite writers, although he-- like any other writer-- has his faults. But at least, unlike most other modern fiction writers, he sets his sights high and keeps his feet firmly grounded in reality. You know for a fact that not a sentence in this novel was written without Wolfe doing meticulous research out in the field: i.e., amidst the fascinating tapestry of quirky, ever-changing subcultures that constitute the USA at the close of the century. No magical realism or airy, groundless personal introspection here, thank heavens!Man in Full takes us from the top of Atlanta society to the fringes of the San Francisco Bay Area, and we're introduced to an engrossing cast of characters from a Hawaiian prisoner in California to the upper-middle-class black kids partying at Freaknik and on and on. The ending is a letdown, and Wolfe succumbs to the most ancient and creaky of plot devices to close the book. but along the way you're in for a wild ride! Wolfe should be commended for being one of the few modern American writers who attempt to portray the details of American culture as they really are-- in all their horror and glory.
Rating: Summary: enjoyable, but... Review: First 500 pages were great, but then TW must have realized that it'd take another 1000 pages to finish it in the same style and tempo. From page 500 onwards it is a down hill spiral, and a let down. Terrific passages make the book worth reading, but more was expected like some climax or coherent end.
Rating: Summary: Tommy Boy's Lost His Edge Review: Compared to Wolfe's earlier work, this is weak. Many of the characters feel unauthentic. The resolution was not well thought-out. The narrative structure is unnecessarily disjointed. There are some good moments, but it doesn't feel like Tommy Boy's having fun in this one. Still, it could have been worse. I would buy it again, and read it again. Unlike Wolfe's earlier work, however, this one now disappear into my bookshelves, never to be heard from again.
Rating: Summary: Unfortunately, captured the true essence of Atlanta, !!! Review: I am a native Atlantan and though the book is not being well recieved here, I wonder why?, if the shoe fits wear it!!! Well it fits all to well, from the politics, to the racial overtones, to the "Buckhead Betty's" and coporate Atlanta. I enjoyed the book, but it did not keep me up nights reading it. Mr. Wolfe can be somewhat verbose and the ending was very disappointing...
Rating: Summary: Le mot juste... not Review: It was wonderful, of course, but--Dan sometimes thought that the writer was a little ... _careless_ ... a bit ... _sloppy_ ... On page 199, he read, "There was only the hexagonal shape to remind you that it was a stop sign." _Hexagonal?_ An anxiety tugged at the edge of his mind. Hexagonal meant... SIX sides... Could--could the writer have made such a gaffe? Such a _humiliating_ gaffe? On page 359! There it was! Again! The ripped up book becomes a "pathetic stack of folios." Could he have possibly meant to say ... _signatures?_
Rating: Summary: Funny, Funny but ... Review: Very funny stuff. I laughed out loud many times which in itself was worth the time and money for me. It just seemed that the author or editor or publisher or somebody said "Hey, its getting way too long. You need to find a way to end this thing NOW." So the ending was disappointing and almost shocking in its abruptness and change of style.
Rating: Summary: Disappointing, shallow Review: Gave up reading this. Fell asleep. There's a lot of ground covered in this book, but so what? Spare me the detailed descriptions of hardwood, jewelry, clothing and sex between horses. This book is a mile wide and an inch deep.
Rating: Summary: disappointing Review: The first 400 pages of A Man in Full were brilliant. After that, I don't think he knew what to do with his characters. As well, during the writing of the book, Wolfe went through a life altering experience (a massive heart attack and subsequent depression), which show through in the preachiness of Conrad. Wolfe couldn't write directly about God, because he wouldn't be taken seriously by his readers, so instead, he writes about Zeus, but the message is the same. It ends up a sort of Ayn Rand meets God philosophy. Finally, Wolfe had no idea how he was going to wrap up the story, so he has two of his characters sit down together, for one to "tell the other a story." He uses this device a little earlier in the book, too, to solve the problem of the rape, but it turns out both unsympathetic to date rape victims and stilted writing.
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