Today I finished reading A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe. Undoubtedly, it was one of the favorite books I have read, a qualification I can attribute to many factors tied to Wolfe's genius writing, but significantly so because of the book's emphasis on stoicism. What follows will be spoiler of the book's plot, so for those who haven't read it, I suggest doing so, but for those who don't see themselves likely to pick it up for whatever reason, I will attempt a TLDR. I am in no way familiar with all the foundational texts of stoicism, but around 4 years ago I was introduced to it by a friend and I read through Meditations. This book has inspired me to read it through again and take a further dive into the philosophy.
The book is based on Charlie Croker, a wealthy real estate developer from Atlanta, who prides himself in his having pulled himself up by his bootstraps to amass a veritable empire of properties Georgia. He is painted as this macho paragon of masculinity who is likened to a bull in his indominable spirit and strength, renowned for his persona and success, and lauded for his successful football career for which he was dubbed "the sixty minute man". Through his company, Croker Global, he built a skyscraper, started a successful food distribution company, and built Croker Concourse, the "crown jewel" of this company.
All of these projects were funded through loans he received from PlannersBanc, which one day summons him for a meeting in which he is slowly but surely humiliated in front of all of his business executives and friends (whom he brought along for what he thought was a standard meeting). The bank executive in charge of this "workout session" breaks away at Charlie's ego, barraging him with insults and questions which lead to the revelation he is in insurmountable debt.
Besides the imminent bankruptcy, another imperative faced in the novel's plot line is the alleged rape of the daughter of Inman Armholster, another important member of the white elite in Atlanta, by Fareek Fanon, a black college football player. A whole scandal forms in the city regarding this problematic, which was identified in its early stages by the mayor who recruits a lawyer named Roger White to deliver a proposal to Charlie Croker: that he, Charlie, speak at a press conference in which he praise Fareek as a man of good will and admirable character, to whom he can relate as a former football star who went through similar hardships. This would be in exchange for an under the table agreement by which the bank would freeze all debt held by Charlie Croker. However, Charlie meets him and absolutely detests everything about him. The mayor saw Charlie as the man most capable to defuse this case from blowing up a racially-divided Atlanta into an all out race war.
Now, the book works by weaving through different characters chapter by chapter, but to avoid writing the whole book again, the gist of those to do with Charlie are his gradually coming to terms with his imminent and unavoidable bankruptcy. In accordance with his stubborn personality, he denies this bankruptcy, alongside his aging, becoming weak, and thus, less of a man, for most of the book, but things change when his plotline is intertwined with that of Conrad Hensley.
He had worked at a Croker Global food packaging warehouse in Oakland, getting laid off due to Charlie's restructuring of assets to attempt to pay off some debt. He later gets imprisoned, and instead of receiving a book called the Stoics' Game which he had requested that his wife send him, he receives a tattered copy of Epictetus' "The Stoics" by accident. He originally is annoyed by this mistake, but begins reading out of curiosity and becomes so enthralled with the content and its relevance to his situation that he practically spends all his time reading it in the prison, flooding all his thoughts with the divine spark, Zeus, and the central tenets of Epictetus' teachings. This spark and the motivation he gets from the teachings causes him to defend himself against the scariest inmate in his cell block, beating and humiliating him in front of all his cellmates. That night an earthquake occurs, which he takes as divine intervention on behalf of Zeus, he escapes, and an old friend arranges for him to escape and acquire a new identity in Atlanta.
Now the interlocking of these two characters' plot lines. Conrad (the escaped convict) ends up working as a nurse's assistant with this company to assist senior citizens. He quickly earns the respect of his supervisor after she receives a call from one of their clients praising him for his bravery in fending off an extortionist which had terrorized their house for months (an action which he nonetheless channeled his stoic divine spark for). So in hopes of him putting a good name out there for the company, she assigns him to a money-maker case: Charlie Croker, who recently got out of knee surgery and needed help getting around.
It isn't until post knee surgery that a true inflection point in Croker's spirits can be identified. He's depressed, he just wants to escape the earth where all his troubles are; he has to deal with his bankruptcy and this new dilemma about participating in the press conference. On the one hand, he would arguably "save the city" by avoiding an explosion of racial unrest, at the same time as saving his business empire and his massive wealth. On the other hand, he would be betraying his best friend, Inman Armholster (the father of the girl who was allegedly raped), whom he had promised his loyalty in this matter, and would be flattering an ungrateful egomaniacal football player publicly who he had not an ounce of a good feeling towards. He sees death as the easy way out. But when Conrad helps him into bed the first night he works with him, he notices him reading the stoics, inquires about it, and through a series of sounding out questions and hypotheticals Croker comes onto the philosophy and the applicability of its tenets to his particular situation.
To further add flame to the fire, Croker's wife confides to him after finding out about the secret agreement regarding the press conference that Inman's daughter was not in fact raped by Fareek, that it was consensual. This complicates his decision further, of course, but Wolfe does a very well job of keeping us hanging until the last possible second. The "state of the city" press conference begins outside the mayor's office, the mayor begins with his address dismissing the assailments against Fareek's character, calling them baseless and lauding him as a good kid who would never do something of the sort. Charlie gets onto stage and performs the nightmare scenario for the mayor and the lawyer. He reveals for the first time publicly that he is bankrupt, and that a certain someone came to him with a proposal to make things right if he were to come to this press conference to speak good words on behalf of Fareek. He shares his true thoughts on Fareek, and then goes into a full speech preaching for stoicism, which leads the city to think he was going senile and crazy, and the mayor pushes him off the stage and ironically calls HIM a snake. The book then concludes with him having given all his deeds to his creditors and him touring the U.S. as an evangelist for stoicism, a gig through which he avoids falling into poverty, a reality which at this point in the book he was more than willing to accept.
It was the first time I have seen stoicism as such an important instrument in a book before. Due to its almost satirical and ironic nature and its criticism of many parts of society, I couldn't help but notice similarities between Tom Wolfe and Kurt Vonnegut's writing. 10/10.
by anervousbull