A MAN IN FULL
by Tom Wolfe
During the first several pages of the book, Mr. Wolfe appears to be taking his main character, Charles Coker, through the familiar plot, used many times in literature, of excessive greed ruining a better than average man.
Charley Coker is a perfect character to be a victim of greed in the classical plot. He is a man's man, a football hero who has attacked life as he did football. Enormous success in real estate gave him a fairy-tale material standard of living. As you would expect, Charlie's excesses are the foundation of his demise.
Just as I was settling in to enjoying this story of greed and its excesses, another, much more interesting thesis began to emerge. Not only was I reading about the destruction of Charley Coker's life, but also the simultaneous destruction of Raymond Peepgass, Conrad Hensley and Fareek Fanon.
Greed no longer was the fabric holding this story together. A third of the way through the book, Mr. Wolfe gives his first hint at the real thesis when Raymond Peepgass concludes that, "Truly, sex was God's cosmic joke".
Mr. Wolfe's treatment of his thesis is subtle, so subtle, that I'll bet most readers miss it, however, the book takes on a new vitality when read from the point of view that sex is "God's cosmic joke".
From that point on the lives of a white rich man, two poor white men, and a black man are destroyed by sex. Not by perverted, out-of-control sex, but the everyday roll-in-the-hay type of sex. The kind of sex that no man can find a rational reason to resist. This sex, while lethal and destructive to men, turns women into predators and beneficiaries.
The hardcover book is worth every penny of the $25.00 you will spend for it.
As an aside, I believe really good fiction must have a central thesis that has universal application. Using his characters and plot, the author supports and builds his thesis. Mr. Wolfe has presented his thesis so well that every mature male reader will have to stop and reminisce about the many times they have suffered the consequences of "God's cosmic joke".
If you have any doubts the thesis is real and universal, ask President Bill Clinton.
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