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      Man in Full by Tom Wolfe Discussion date:
      December 17, 1999. 7:30--meeting, 6:30--Christmas music and mingling. Discussion place: Lyn's
    place.  Menu: Champagne, cheese,
      crackers, Susannah's cranberry torte, etc. . . Activity: Books and Cooks gift
      exchange. $10 cap.  
 The Man in Full homepage
    at www.tomwolfe.com, including
    excerpts. Robot Wisdom's page of Tom
    Wolfe resources. Salon
    Magazine's review"A Man in Full" is already a supersize swig of literary
    testosterone, Wolfe's exhaustive and exhausting manifesto of masculinity at
    the millennium. It has subplots about real estate wheeler-dealers,
    stressed-out bankers, blue-blooded African-American politicians with
    fabulous suits and priceless collections of Yoruba art, illegal Asian
    immigrants, superfluous discarded wives and blue-collar workers, but the
    question at the heart of the novel is what makes a man a real man, a man's
    man, a man in full. Like his hero Charlie Croker, Wolfe lets us know he has
    "masculinity to burn." He sorts out the "true Male
    Animals" from the passive wimps. His preferred men look like bulls or
    lions, with rippling muscles, thick necks and huge forearms. Black or white,
    rich or poor, they are combat-ready, eager to turn every business
    transaction, social occasion and sporting event into a struggle for male
    conquest. Readers should not be slow to get the repellent point.
 But Wolfe has more than machismo up his sleeve. Since the '80s, he has
      been anticipating a Third Great Awakening, an American religious movement
      born out of luxury, narcissism and greed. In 1995, Wolfe was predicting a
      spiritual revival for the millennium. The '90s, he argued, were the decade
      of moral fever rather than money fever. In August 1996, Wolfe had a
      quintuple heart bypass operation, followed by a prolonged depression from
      which he was rescued by Dr. Paul McHugh, psychiatrist in chief of the
      Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and the main dedicatee of "A Man
      in Full." His survey of decadent end-of-the-century American
      masculinity is also a quest for religious transcendence, pursued through a
      trio of larger-than-life protagonists. Amazon says: Of course, a detailed plot summary would be about as long as your
    average minimalist novel. Suffice it to say that A Man in Full is
    packed with the sort of splendid set pieces we've come to expect from Wolfe.
    A quail hunt on Charlie's 29,000-acre plantation, a stuffed-shirt evening at
    the symphony, a politically loaded press conference--the author assembles
    these scenes with contagious delight. The book is also very, very funny. The
    law firms, like upper-crust powerhouse Fogg Nackers Rendering & Lean,
    are straight out of Dickens, and Wolfe brings even his minor characters,
    like professional hick Opey McCorkle, to vivid life:
 
 The Books and Cooks A Man in Full Informal Reading Guide(member-generated questions in no particular order)
 
        
          Were the characters in this novel 3-dimensional or
          were they caricatures?
          Do you think this is a realistic portrait of modern
          day America?
          Did we really get a sense of what the philosophy of
          stoicism was about? Were any of the characters true stoics?
          Do you think Wolfe has equal ability to portray the
          rich characters and the poor characters?
          What do you think minority response (African-American
          especially) would be to the very obviously stereotyped characters in
          this book, especially given Wolfe's white, southern slant? 
          Who is your favorite character?
          What did you think would happen between Conrad and
          Croker?
          Is stoicism presented as a sensible desirable
          philosophy? Is it meant to be? 
          Are the names meant to symbolize the people? (E.g.,
          Charlie Croker the cracker, Conrad the con-vict, Roger White, etc.)
          Which ones aren't I thinking of? This Page Last Revised: November 21, 2000. |