Word: crokers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Manliness motivates not only Braveheart, but the terrorists of Northern Ireland. And Wolfe, without any concern for the excess for his extreme stance, ends up spewing a kind of cheap Nietzsche, worshipping his own ubermensch, the stoic philosopher. One such character, a la Charlie Croker, the hero of A Man in Full, may be colorful, but a society of such rambunctious souls is anarchy...
...plot revolves around Charlie Croker, an Atlanta real estate developer leading a luxurious life, complete with antebellum plantation and trophy wife. Croker is struggling, though, to escape the half-billion dollar debt he has accumulated through failed developments. Meanwhile, when a wealthy white family accuses a black football star of rape, Atlanta's latent racial tensions threaten to erupt chaotically to the surface. As opposing forces vie for Charlie's assets and his dignity, an unemployed California factory worker rides an almost supernatural tide of events into the heart of Atlanta, interjecting an unknown variable into the literary equation...
Inevitably, reviews of A Man in Full revert to comparisons with Bonfire of the Vanities, and the two tales do share many common features. First of all, the plots are strikingly similar. Charlie Croker's financial crisis sounds a great deal like Sherman McCoy's. In fact, each uses the same phrase, "hemorrhaging money," to bemoan his predicament. In both books middling professionals--Raymond Peepgass and Larry Kramer--rabidly attack Croker and McCoy, respectively, in efforts to advance their own shabby ambitions. The protagonists in both novels exacerbate their problems with costly affairs, and the two books also highlight...
...Charlie Croker's quest for money and power belies his desire to be a "a man in full." Images of men and masculinity pervade the novel. Physical strength and presence are a big part of Charlie's aura--he is proud of his huge frame just as Conrad (the Californian worker) is obsessed with his massive hands and arms. Croker is determined to avoid outward signs of weakness, and his pride drives him to ridiculous displays of machismo...
What ultimately separates Charlie from Sherman McCoy is his realization, on some level, of just how foolish his egotism and macho stunts are. Despite this self-knowledge, Charlie simply cannot resist defending his alpha male status in any situation. For example, having just been humiliated by his creditors, Croker decides to reassert his control by capturing a rattlesnake barehanded: "He knew that what he was about to do was foolhardy--and he knew he would do it anyway...there was no other choice but the foolhardiest possible...