Big men. Big money. Big games. Big libidos. Big trouble. A decade ago The Bonfire of the Vanities defined an era--and established Tom Wolfe as our prime fictional chronicler of America at its most outrageous and alive. This time the setting is Atlanta Georgia--a racially mixed late-century boomtown full of fresh wealth avid speculators and worldly-wise politicians. The protagonist is Charles Croker once a college football star now a late-middle-aged Atlanta real-estate entrepreneur turned conglomerate king whose expansionist ambitions and outsize ego have at last hit up against reality. Charlie has a 28000-acre quail-shooting plantation a young and demanding second wife--and a half-empty office tower with a staggering load of debt. When star running back Fareek Fanon--the pride of one of Atlantas grimmest slums--is accused of raping an Atlanta bluebloods daughter the citys delicate racial balance is shattered overnight. Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent daily life behind bars shady real-estate syndicates cast-off first wives of the corporate elite the racially charged politics of college sports--Wolfe shows us the disparate worlds of contemporary America with all the verve wit and insight that have made him our most phenomenal most admired contemporary novelist.