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The Bonfire of the Vanities
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553381344
ISBN: 0553381342
Label: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Manufacturer: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 656
Publication Date: October 30, 2001
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Release Date: October 30, 2001
Studio: Dial Press Trade Paperback
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Editorial Review:
After Tom Wolfe defined the '60s in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and the cultural U-turn at the turn of the '80s in The Right Stuff, nobody thought he could ever top himself again. In 1987, when The Bonfire of the Vanities arrived, the literati called Wolfe an "aging enfant terrible."
He wasn't aging; he was growing up. Bonfire's pyrotechnic satire of 1980s New York wasn't just Wolfe's best book, it was the best bestselling fiction debut of the decade, a miraculously realistic study of an unbelievably status-mad society, from the fiery combatants of the South Bronx to the bubbling scum at the top of Wall Street. Sherman McCoy, a farcically arrogant investment banker (dubbed a "Master of the Universe," Wolfe's brilliant metaphorical co-opting of a then-important toy for boys), hits a black guy in the Bronx with his Mercedes and runs--right into a nightmare peopled by vicious mistresses, thin wives like "social x-rays," slime-bag politicos, tabloid hacks, and Dantesque denizens of the "justice" system. If the Coen and Marx brothers together dramatized The Great Gatsby, Wolfe's Bonfire would probably be funnier. Many think his second novel, A Man in Full, is deeper, but Bonfire will never die down.
You might find it interesting to compare the film The Bonfire of the Vanities, a fascinating calamity perpetrated by the geniuses Brian De Palma and Tom Hanks, with The Right Stuff, one of the very best films of the '80s. --Tim Appelo
Tom Wolfe’s modern American satire tells the story of Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street “Master of the Universe” who has it all — a Park Avenue apartment, a job that brings wealth, power and prestige, a beautiful wife, an even more beautiful mistress. Suddenly, one wrong turn makes it all go wrong, and Sherman spirals downward in a sudden fall from grace that sucks him into the ravenous heart of a New York City gone mad during the go-go, racially turbulent, socially hilarious 1980s.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Best Mainstream Novel of the Last Two Decades
On the plus side, The Bonfire of the Vanities compares well with Balzac's stuff. I mean, the methods are similar. The story follows several very different characters living in New York, and each scene is detailed, particularized, analyzed, painted with a very fine brush. Many layers of New York's society are represented. There are no moral messages, no lessons to be learned, just life in New York in the late 'Eighties or early 'Nineties at its most intense, presented as "business as usual," with ... Read More
Rating: - 5 stars as a period-piece
Tom Wolfe excels at culture, or at least he certainly used to, pulling together the genuine thoughts and actions of various subsets of people and so capturing the essential creature of a movement.
In this, Bonfire never disappoints. He shows us glitzy and amoral Wall Street moneymakers, portraits of an imploding criminal justice system, variously-motivated community 'opinion leaders', and more. All of this takes ages to set up, pushing the essential action back a few hundred pages as ... Read More
Rating: - Wolfe "Bonefire" - One For The Ages
I do not think an author puts more into his books than Wolfe. This is a story so much more than about the greedy 80's. As you are reading you are saying to yourself exactly what Wolfe saids seconds later, as if he is in your mind. Its about political correctness gone awry. And its so "New York City" and you have to live and work there to totally see how Wolfe is so accurate even 20 years later.
Sadly now as you read this great novel, you think to the disaster of a movie. So altered ... Read More
Rating:  - Bonfired Up
In all 31 flavors of "Law and Order on TV, the NYPD and DA's office disposes of a case from the incident to the trial in an hour--sometimes two if it's a two-part episode. In "Bonfire of the Vanities" Tom Wolfe does the same thing in about 700 pages. That's because Wolfe brings to bear all the complexities of trying a case in the real world.
In the mid-1980s, Sherman McCoy is a bond salesman at Pierce & Pierce, a self-described "Master of the Universe" with a three million-dollar ... Read More
Rating: - Had me laughing in the first 10 pages. This book is a hoot.
Given the current graft, greed, and "me,me,me" on wallstreet (what's new) this book might be a little outdated but is still one the funniest ironic books about New Yorkers, and especially Wall Streeters, I've read.
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