Because of the success of Wolfe's first novel, there was widespread interest in his second. This novel took him more than 11 years to complete; "A Man in Full" was published in 1998. The book's reception was not universally favorable, though it received glowing reviews in "Time", "Newsweek", "The Wall Street Journal", and elsewhere. An initial printing of 1.2 million copies was announced and the book stayed at number one on "The New York Times" bestseller list for ten weeks. Noted author John Updike wrote a critical review for "The New Yorker", complaining that the novel "amounts to entertainment, not literature, even literature in a modest aspirant form." His comments sparked an intense war of words in the print and broadcast media among Wolfe and Updike, and authors John Irving and Norman Mailer, who also entered the fray.