A Man in Full

By: Tom Wolfe

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • “A masterpiece” (The Wall Street Journal) of a novel by the era-defining author of The Bonfire of the Vanities—now a Netflix original limited series from David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies) starring Jeff Daniels, Lucy Liu, and Diane Lane

“Wolfe is a peerless observer, a fearless satirist, a genius in full.”—People

The setting is Atlanta, Georgia—a racially mixed, late-twentieth-century boomtown full of fresh wealth and wily politicians. The protagonist is Charles Croker, once a college football star, now a late-middle-aged Atlanta conglomerate king whose outsize ego has at last hit up against reality. Charlie has a 29,000-acre quail-shooting plantation, a young and demanding second wife, and a half-empty office complex with a staggering load of debt.

Meanwhile, Conrad Hensley, idealistic young father of two, is laid off from his job at the Croker Global Foods warehouse near Oakland, California, and finds himself spiraling into the lower depths of the American legal system.

And back in Atlanta, when star Georgia Tech running back Fareek “the Canon” Fanon, a homegrown product of the city’s slums, is accused of date-raping the daughter of a pillar of the white establishment, upscale black lawyer Roger White II is asked to represent Fanon and help keep the city’s delicate racial balance from blowing sky-high.

Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent, daily life behind bars, shady real estate syndicates—Wolfe shows us contemporary turn-of-the-century America with all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him one of our most admired talked-about novelists.

Critic reviews

"A masterpiece."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Superior...utterly engrossing."
--USA Today

"The novel contains passages as powerful and as beautiful as anything written--not merely by contemporary American novelists but by any American novelist....The book is as funny as anything Wolfe has ever written; at the same time it is also deeply, strangely affecting."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Wolfe is a peerless observer, a fearless satirist, a genius in full."
--People

suburb novel--a modern Dickens

I found this novel very entertaining. The main characters are very well drawn. The plot lines are beautifully constructed. The scenes are nicely varied (warehouse workers, prison, high society, political strategists, businessmen). There is a lot of shrewd social commentary too. The narrator is excellent. Wolfe excels at getting inside the mach male mind. The one weakness is that the few female characters are rather marginal.

Thumbs up for Prichard

I'm a big fan of Tom Wolfe, but I almost didn't listen to this book since so many reviewers found fault with the narrator. To the contrary, I thought Michael Prichard was a perfect choice. His delivery was a direct and nuanced performance. Definitely worth five stars.

Really gets into the minds of the characters

The narrator was great! Wolfe goes into such detail that you feel like you’re present in the story. Because I lived in a suburb just northwest of Atlanta proper for 28 years, I especially identify with the setting. I was a mere middle class resident, so not privy to the lives of the wealthy, but the book rings true to me in its description of life in various classes of residents, and the description of metro Atlanta in general. I loved how it ended, which was very different from the TV series. I read the print book back when it came out, but decided to re-read it as an audiobook after the Netflix series aired, and I’m glad I did!

A classic that has gotten better with time.

There are two versions of this audiobook: an abridged version narrated by David Ogden Stiers (of M*A*S*H fame) and this unabridged work. This is the one you want to get, simply because the abridgement leaves out a lot of nuance and greatness in the 20+ hours that are cut from it.

This is the work that inspired our continued modern-day fascination with Stoic philosophy. It has a sprawling, ambitious plot and cultural themes aside from Stoicism thaf are still relevant today.

The narration is excellent, and Wolfe's prose presents a challenge to any narrator, with its frequent use of dialect, words that you can't say today, and heavy emphasis on dialogue to move the plot forwad.

As of this review (April 2023) a Netflix series based on the work is in production. if you came here because you were excited or disappointed by the adaptation, do yourself a favor and check out the source material. There are bound to be parts that don't translate and probably key plot points that were dropped.

Whenever I encounter a male friend who is going through a tough time, I make a point of sending the brief passage on the Stoic philosopher Aggripinus, which occurs about an hour before the audiobook concludes. It's sheer excellence encapsulates that of the work in toto. It's worth getting this book for that section alone.

Excellent book

This is well worth to listen. Filled with interesting plotline, humor, and Tom Wolf usual irony and social philosophy.