A Man in Full (review)

reviews Our regular review section features some of the best new books and films. From time to time, you'll also find reviews of important new museum exhibitions and public history sites, and retrospectives on classic works that continue to shape our understanding of the South and its people. Our aim is to explore the rich diversity of southern life and the approaches of those who study it. This issue we explore mischief-maker Tom Wolfe's new Atlanta-based novel, journey back in time to early Radio Land, even venture into a striking Louisiana swamp. Along the way—a William Gilmore Simms sighting, and plenty of other stops. A Man in Full By Tom Wolfe Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998 742 pp. Cloth $28.95 Reviewed by John Shelton Reed, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and coeditor of Southern Cultures. His many books on the South include the recent 1001 Things Everyone Should Know about the South, written with his wife, Dale Volberg Reed. Reprinted by permission of The OxfordAmerican, which published an earlier version of this review. We've all run into Atiantans for whom "the one thing they can't stand" (as a character \xvA Man in Fullputs it) is "the idea that somebody in New York might be calling them Southern hicks." This bad case ofwhat the Australians call "cultural cringe" makes poking fun almost irresistible, and it's not just Yankees who can't resist: recendy a Dallas sportswriter wrote that a sold-out Georgia Dome reflected not the Falcons' surprisingly strong season but the presence in town of "the semi-annual Stuckey's regional cashiers convention." Of course, it doesn't help that Atiantans' insecurity often leads to undeniably hicky behavior, like putting a sign in the airport that says "Welcome to Adanta: A World-Class, MajorLeague City." And don'tget me started deconstructing the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics. Anything short of fulsome praise for their city just feeds Atiantans' deepseated rubophobia, and Tom Wolfe's new book is not exacdy a puff piece. That whatever it has to say about Atlanta is being heard by a lot of people only makes matters worse. Its first printing was 1.2 million copies, it immediately jumped to number one on every bestseller list that matters, and buyers even seem to be read92 ing this 742-page doorstop of a book. How else to explain the fact that within three weeks TheArt ofLivingby Epictetus (who figures in the book) was at 3447 in Amazon.com's sales rankings, while the Meditations ofMarcus Aurelius (a stoic with only Hannibal Lector's citation in Silence ofthe Lambs going for him) was at number 14,598, and poor, unblurbed Seneca's Dialogues and Letters was mired at 104,143? (Number one, ofcourse, was A Man in Full.) But Adanta's image police may be getting smarter. True, something called the Buckhead Coalition withdrew Wolfe's luncheon invitation when they heard what was supposedly in the book, but theJournal-Constitution played it pretty cool, offsetting its mosdy bad review ("Save your $28.95") with excerpts from other papers ' more favorable notices, a couple of straight news stories, and an appreciative column by the estimable Michael Skube. This despite knowing, surely, that all this coverage could only remind readers how long it has been since the last bestseller about this pushy, acquisitive New South city—which raises the question of why Adanta produces or even attracts so few good writers, which raises the question ofwhat "world-class" really means .... Anyway, theJournal-Constitution's handling of Wolfe's book was, if not worldclass , at least not hysterical, and most of the city's spin doctors managed to stay on-message when the outside press came knocking. "It's a fictional book," the president ofthe Chamber ofCommerce told the Washington Post. "It's fiction!" said the main flack for Georgia Tech. Atlanta magazine's editor-in-chief agreed: "It's just a book." But the Postwasn't ready to letAtiantans get awaywith affecting New Yorkerly indifference. It quoted Mayor Bill Campbell—"Adanta is very secure in who we are, and...