The Bonfire of the Vanities
by Tom Wolfe
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tom WolfeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-10-30
ISBN: 0553381342
Number of pages: 656
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Book Reviews of The Bonfire of the Vanities
Book Review: As relevant as ever
Summary: 4 Stars
As certain legal cases continue to generate huge headlines with everybody fighting for their camera close-ups, it shows that "The Bonfire of the Vanities" will never become irrelevant.
The novel is an extremely fun read that eviscerates the New York of the 80s, as well as managing to stay relevant in contemporary times. Wolfe's novel peers through the windows of all the social strata to meld an infuriating tale of people pretending to look out for the greater good but only engaging in vicious self-preservation. There aren't many characters in the book whom I found especially likeable and some who I found palatable at first ended up disappointing me. Every twist in the story made things even more unpredictable right up to the epilogue, which I found to be a bit of a let down but a realistic one. My only real question at the end of the story was the subplot about the $350,000 that the Reverend Bacon couldn't account for; Wolfe seemed to drop the ball on that and I wanted to see where it would end up.
This story was originally serialized in "Rolling Stone" magazine (!) in 1984-85 but by the time it saw print as a complete novel, it had changed quite a bit. Sherman McCoy was a writer in the serial, and was a Wall Street financier in the novel. Wolfe tapped into the temper of the times with that canny switch, and makes the putpouring of anger and resentment against McCoy that much more timely.
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