Wolfe took eleven years after The Bonfire of the Vanities to write A Man in Full. The two books have many similarities. Their main settings are large cities. Both plots feature two characters, unknown to each other at the outset and coming from wealth and privilege in the one case and poverty and deprivation in the other. Their paths cross and as a result the courses of their lives are changed forever. Both stories are concerned with racial dissension and political ambition. Both books detail the lifestyles of the various social classes, but particularly those of the wealthy. In Bonfire Sherman McCoy considers himself a Master of the Universe; Charlie Croker is the Master of Turpmtine. The scene in which Conrad has his car towed because someone pushed it into an illegal parking spot and his consequent and futile attempts to get the car back is...