A Man in Full

By: Tom Wolfe

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

The setting is Atlanta, Georgia - a racially mixed, late-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 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 America with all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him our most admired novelist. Charlie Croker’s deliverance from his tribulations provides an unforgettable denouement to the most widely awaited, hilarious, and telling novel America has seen in ages - Tom Wolfe’s most outstanding achievement to date.

©2010 Tom Wolfe (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"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)

"A masterpiece." (The Wall Street Journal)

"Superior...utterly engrossing." (USA Today)

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!

Best Wolfe After Bonfire

Finally an unabridged audiobook of A Man in Full. Great story, writing, and narration. I don't know what took so long for this to be released.

What Makes a Man? And Narrator Not So Bad

An interesting listen that held my attention despite its length. The author introduces the philosophy of Stoicism to the modern world, which is not nearly as boring as it sounds. I was definitely rooting for Conrad Hensley. One of the subplots seems dated in the #MeToo era, and how superficial the female characters seem to be. The overall plot of what defines a man, his status, his possessions, what others think of him, or his character, brings home the point in the end.
The narrator took a little getting used to, but I stuck with him and ended up not disliking him as much as many other people.

Great Read

Poignant even today. Well written, complex, great character development. Read it you won’t regret it.

Brilliant

The plot was at first like scatter shot like a quail gun. So many characters, with such separate stories, all of the interesting, but separate. How was this going to come together. “Slowly,” was the answer. The excellent writing and expansive vocabulary, and the hints of the many stories heading to a central vortex kept me moving forward through 35 hours of listening. In the end, it was all worth it; all worth it. All worth it. Thanks

Great book .. great narrator .. hard to listen to

I read this book years ago, and forced myself to complete this book because I like the stoics. I had forgotten that it was hard for me to get through in print. I wasn't really hooked in until the last couple chapters of the book. I've listened to this narrator on many audio books and he did an exceptional job with A Man in Full. Having said that, there were several times that I had to shut it off and come back later. Most of these were times in the book where the author repeats himself 3 or 4 times, when the first time was annoying or just unnecessary.

Fantastic book with so-so narration

A lot of the reviews really disliked the narrator and at first, I’ll admit, I did too. He grows on you after a while. The story is one of my favorites I’ve read or listened to in recent memory- ironic, meaningful, immersive, and with detailed and complex characters.

Don’t Miss Out On This Book!

I almost didn’t get this book because of some of the negative reviews about the narrator. Personally, I thought he was fantastic! Plus, this story is top notch! I could not put it down for a second. The moment I had a free minute or two I would pop my air pods in a pickup where I left off, it was just THAT engrossing! Buy it! You won’t be disappointed!