I was knocked out by Tom Wolfe's powers as a writer of language and a storyteller in his novel A Man in Full. What insight, characterization! What a fabulously detailed scene at Turpmtine, when a humiliated Charlie Croker restores (for himself and his underlings) his manhood by picking up a rattlesnake with his bare hands. Wow! So why does Charlie so easily turn to evangelism at the end? Even if an unusual kind, ie, stoicism. Even if a hugely sympathetic character, Conrad, introduced Charlie to the philosphy. Despite the workmanlike set up, I did not believe it. And why rely on pure exposition for the last chapter? Okay, Wolfe was making a point about politics and politicians and different classes, shades of skin, while winding up the various story threads he had introduced. And yet... The exhilerating time I had reading the novel ended in a whimper.