A MAN IN FULL

The patrician David Ogden Stiers seems an odd choice to narrate the militantly rugged prose of Tom Wolfe. Yet he does a creditable job with this comic novel that has Atlanta's city fathers in high dudgeon. And, indeed, it does mock the respectable element and municipal culture of Scarlet O'Hara's home-town, which Wolfe would have us believe is full of foolishness, pomposity, hypocrisy and corruption. Oddly, Stiers, the consummate comedian of TV's "M*A*S*H," fails to imbue the narrative with much jollity. In fact, his descriptive and expository passages are dull. On the other hand, when he comes to dialogue and action, he jumps to life, reminding us of why we enjoyed him so much on the tube. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 99]