A Man In Full

Big men. Big money. Big games. Big libidos. Big trouble. A decade ago; The Bonfire of the Vanities defined an era--and established Tom Wolfe as our prime fictional chronicler of America at its most outrageous and alive. This time the setting is Atlanta; Georgia--a racially mixed late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth; avid speculators; and worldly-wise politicians. The protagonist is Charles Croker; once a college football star; now a late-middle-aged Atlanta real-estate entrepreneur turned conglomerate king; whose expansionist ambitions and outsize ego have at last hit up against reality. Charlie has a 28;000-acre quail-shooting plantation; a young and demanding second wife--and a half-empty office tower with a staggering load of debt. When star running back Fareek Fanon--the pride of one of Atlanta's grimmest slums--is accused of raping an Atlanta blueblood's daughter; the city's delicate racial balance is shattered overnight. Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent; daily life behind bars; shady real-estate syndicates; cast-off first wives of the corporate elite; the racially charged politics of college sports--Wolfe shows us the disparate worlds of contemporary America with all the verve; wit; and insight that have made him our most phenomenal; most admired contemporary novelist. A Man in Full is a 1998 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.