Review of the novel "Full Man": David E. Kelly attacks Tom Wolfe

Genre journalism turned literary titan Tom Wolfe's second novel, released in 1998 under the title A Man in Full, is similar to his 1987 debut, Bonfire of the Vanities. They are both broad social satires about the powerful and not-so-powerful and the cities they inhabit, namely Atlanta and New York, respectively. "Bonfire of the Vanities" was a best-selling novel adapted by director Brian DePalma into a 1990 movie disaster starring an ill-fitting Tom Hanks as the "Master of the Universe" of Wall Street.

And now, 25 years after "The Full-Volume Man" became a finalist for the National Book Award, a six-part limited series is being released (premiering on May 2), featuring an ill-suited Jeff Daniels as Charlie Croker, a former Georgia football team hero and "Master of the Universe" in real estate, who is tangled in debt and forced to defend his empire from resentful bankers.

The series "Full-Volume Man" on Netflix

Devoid of the sardonic sharpness of Wolfe, the inner knowledge of privileges, and the disdain of a novice towards American institutions and the egocentrics running them, his class and racial critique is rich material (sometimes superficial), and his source base mocks the petty dramas of the upper American class and the tense and unjust justice system.