Norman Mailer: Works and Days

A Man Half Full

Mailer's New York Review of Books review of Tom Wolfe's novel A Man in Full (17 December 1998) — containing some of his most considered comments on novel-writing, and a salvo in the Mailer–Wolfe quarrel.

“A Man Half Full,” Mailer’s review of Tom Wolfe‘s novel A Man in Full, appeared in the New York Review of Books on 17 December 1998 (18, 20–23). The title’s pun is the point: the review carries some of Mailer’s most considered comments on novel-writing even as it deflates Wolfe — a notable round in the Mailer–Wolfe–Updike quarrel of the period. Reprinted in the softcover edition of The Time of Our Time (98.7).

First published: 1998-12-17
Form: essay
Lennon & Lennon: 98.17
Cite as: /works/1998-12-17-a-man-half-full
Last updated: 2026-06-06