Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe ISBN: 0-553-38133-4 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.39 (855 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A lofty attempt that sometimes misses the mark
Comment: Generally I think Wolfe wrote an interesting, but not great novel.
Some of the characters are well drawn, particularly the two progtagonists, Conrad and Charlie. The description of Conrad's worst day gives us an interesting baseline on which we can follow his character development throughout his subsequent experiences. Others figures are despressingly two-dimensional - especially the women, who seem to be primarily motivated by how purchasing power and age. Worst of all is Charlie's wife; I don't understand any of her motivation least of all why she has a child.
Some of the scenes are brilliantly written, such as Charlie picking up the snake and the weekend with the "liberal Jews". Unfortunately, these gems are interspersed with verbose descriptions of everything from clothing, house decor, horse mating and jailhouse talk.
The ending is the single biggest disappointment. All loose ends quickly get resolved, everyone lives happily ever after. This is what you would expect from a TV mini-series. This novel really could have used some editing in the mid sections and a (dare I say) a lengthier, more thoughtful ending.
Rating: 4
Summary: great big novel with excellent characters
Comment: This being my first Tom Wolfe novel, I had no idea what to expect of A Man in Full, but was immediately grabbed by the fabulous characters Wolfe introduced. Wolfe has an amazing way of clearly illustrating, with simple words, any character, environment or situation. On the first page, Charlie Croker, the character who the plot revolves around, is introduced:
"Charlie Croker, astride his favorite Tennessee walking horse, pulled his shoulders back to make sure he was erect in the saddle and took a deep breath... Ahhhh, that was the ticket... He loved the way his mighty chest rose and fell beneath his khaki shirt and imagined that everyone in the hunting party noticed how powerfully built he was. Everybody; not just his seven guests but also his six black retainers and his young wife..."
As the book proceeds, Charlie continues to be revealed as a pompous good ole boy real estate developer who is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Wolfe also did a great job capturing life in the South, and, by the dialogue his characters used, it looks like he did his research. References to the lifestyles of college students, bankers, the affluent, prison inmates all seemed right on the mark. (Although I can only relate personally with college students.)
I found the book dull in a couple of places but overall, I really enjoyed it. Will definitely give another Tom Wolfe novel a try.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent
Comment: The biggest compliment I can give to Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full" is acknowledging that if I somehow found myself transported 100 or 500 years into the future and wanted to give people an idea of what life in American was like at the close of the 20th century, I would just as soon give them a copy of this novel as I would a historical textbook. Writing equally well about characters at varying places along the socio-economic spectrum, Wolfe perfectly captures the mood, attitude, and cultural condition of contemporary America. Reading this book today, approximately six years after its original publish date, one almost has to look at Wolfe as a prophet, as one of the novel's major subplots involving a famous black athlete accused of raping a beautiful, rich, white girl has an eerie similarity to a current legal case involving a particular Los Angeles Lakers superstar.
Another compliment to this wonderful novel is that while many characters are obviously intended to represent certain stereotypes (the egomaniacal, overbearing multimillionaire, the trophy wife vs. the cast-aside first wife, the working class stiff who can't seem to catch a break, the wimpy middle-management type, etc), few of the characters ever appear to be anything less than fully developed 3-dimensional characters. By delving deep into the psyches of his characters, Wolfe is able to make characters who could easily have come off as clichés into oddly sympathetic figures. It is difficult to try to condense the breadth and depth of this 700+ page (hardcover edition) novel into a few short paragraphs, so I will conclude by simply stating that while this book was a successful bestseller, it seems to me that this is the sort of great work that will be even better appreciated years from now than it may have been in its own time.
 |
Title: The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe ISBN: 0553275976 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 November, 1988 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
 |
Title: Hooking Up by Tom Wolfe ISBN: 0312420234 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 12 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: The Right Stuff by TOM WOLFE ISBN: 0553381350 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe ISBN: 0553380648 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers by Tom Wolfe ISBN: 0553380621 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 05 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
