Introduction

The setting is Atlanta, Georgia — a racially mixed, late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth and wily politicians. The protagonist is Charles Croker, once a college football star, now a late-middle-aged Atlanta conglomerate king whose outsize ego has at last hit up against reality. Charlie has a 29,000 acre quail-shooting plantation, a young and demanding second wife, and a half-empty office complex with a staggering load of debt.

Meanwhile, Conrad Hensley, idealistic young father of two, is laid off from his job at the Croker Global Foods warehouse near Oakland and finds himself spiraling into the lower depths of the American legal system.

And back in Atlanta, when star Georgia Tech running back Fareek “the Canon” Fanon, a homegrown product of the city’s slums, is accused of date-raping the daughter of a pillar of the white establishment, upscale black lawyer Roger White II is asked to represent Fanon and help keep the city’s delicate racial balance from blowing sky-high.

Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent, daily life behind bars, shady real estate syndicates — Wolfe shows us contemporary America with all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him our most admired novelist. Charlie Croker’s deliverance from his tribulations provides an unforgettable denouement to the most widely awaited, hilarious and telling novel America has seen in ages — Tom Wolfe’s most outstanding achievement to date.

Editorial Review

Choosing David Ogden Stiers (M*A*S*H, The Accidental Tourist) to narrate this sprawling tale of contemporary American society was an act of inspired audio casting. The familiar, snobbish qualities of his warm yet condescending voice perfectly match author Tom Wolfe's own carefully sculpted persona of haughty disdain and color the recording with an interesting sense of authenticity. Without indulging in overwrought characterizations, Stiers manages to create enough distinction between players to keep this sweeping epic coherent. There are moments that find him overreaching, but when voicing a novel this broad, some notes are bound to ring false. Overall, Stiers's abridged reading is an intelligent, entertaining rendition of Wolfe's scrupulously detailed and bitingly funny portrait of America at the turn of the millennium. (Running time: 8.5 hours, 6 cassettes) --George Laney

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