A Man in Full
by Tom Wolfe, David Ogden Stiers, Juan Gabriel López Guix · first published 1998
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Satirical novel about status, money and ambition in Atlanta's business world. Sharp social observation and vivid, funny detail mark Wolfe's finest craftsmanship, and it suits anyone who enjoys his style.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A satire on America featuring a capitalist trying to avoid ruin. The hero is Charlie Croker of Atlanta whose plantation and skyscraper face repossession by banks for non-repayment of a loan. One way out might be to request leniency in return for hushing up a rape.
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It depends on what you like, but having read all his full length books, I’m firmly of the opinion that A Man in Full is the best novel qua novel. In terms of craftsmenship it’s his masterpiece. On the other hand, Bonfire of the Vanities is the most Wolfian of the books—it’s the book that most of any of them could not…
on “Tom Wolfe Has Died” ↗…available on Project Gutenberg, btw. It's very short, and many things are not really relevant today anymore, yet surprisingly many sections still "speak to us". 4. Note also that Tom Wolfe's huge novel "A Man in Full" is suffused with Stoic themes. I find Stoicism quite wise, and still substantial enough when you subtract all the obsolete superstition (which cannot be said of, for example, Abrahamic religions). Certainly…
on “How to Be a Stoic” ↗…character, a lawyer, described the line of prisoners going into the back of the courthouse as "chow," as in chow for the system. I'll never forget that. Also, for anyone who grew up in Atl, Wolfe's book "A Man In Full" drips with the kind of delicious look-in-the-mirror satire home grown Southerners love.
on “Who's Afraid of Tom Wolfe?” ↗Tom Wolfe wrote a book called "A Man in Full" that had a very similar character. He said that the formerly wealthy hang on to their private jets harder than anything else. They even went as far as creating fake airline stubs for debt collection…
on “The Learjet repo man” ↗It is hard for me to imagine that Amazon warehouse jobs are much worse than other warehouse jobs. This reminds me of Tom Wolfe's telling of the character Conrad Hensley (of Oakland, CA) in A Man in Full. His warehouse job was pretty bad and he was on the ropes.
on “911 calls from Amazon warehouses show emotional distress and suicide threats” ↗No, the new wave of popularity for Stoicism can be traced back to Tom Wolfe's 1998 bestseller, A Man in Full. https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Tom-Wolfe-s-Book-A-Man-i...
on “Why Stoicism is one of the best mind hacks ever devised” ↗