King Lear in Atlanta

"A Man in Full" simpy stated is a great American novel. Bringing to this opus many of the same themes and concerns he addressed in "Bonfire of the Vanities", the master satirist holds a magnifying glass up to the moral morass that contemporary America has become. As in "Bonfire",Wolfe explores the world of wealth and its denizens, and how this monied milieu defines people's lives, their very sense of identity, dictates their behavior and all too often corrupts, or effectively negates any sense of morality. Wolfe's central character,60 year-old Charlie Croker, ex-football hero and Atlanta tycoon, is in imminent danger of losing his diverse empire in a quagmire of debt to a bank, whose loan officers are salivating at the thought of dining on Croker's corporate carcass. Croker's one chance to salvage his empire, at the expense of his honor, comes when he is asked to play a healing role in the volatile world of Atlanta's racial politics. Atlanta's wily, opportunistic black mayor asks Croker, a certified cracker, to vouch for the good character of a star black college football player (he's in reality arrogant and obnoxious) who's been accused of raping the daughter of another Atlanta tycoon, a close friend of Croker. A deal has been worked out to re-structure Croker's debt with the blessing of the white corporate establishment.All he has to do is lie. How Croker's real salvation comes at the hands of a victim of his desperate downsizing, who enlightens and liberates the broken King Lear-like magnate; the way Wolfe, with his quicksilver prose and jaundiced satire reveals the essential spiritual vacuity of contemporary society, and the posturing insincerity of modern politics, and yet is able to proffer hope and the possibility of transcendence and redemption make this a Novel in Full.