Rating: 
Summary: Egg-celent
Review: Tom Wolfe provides a very realistic look into life. Wolfe's style of writing is very refreshing: colloquial speech and dialogue make the characters very easy to relate to. Sherman McCoy is not your average blue-collar worker, and he may even spur jealousy and anger from readers. But it becomes difficult not to emphathize with him through his struggles and in the end. Wolfe also provides impeccable description of emotions and feelings, even something as simple as a hangover: "The telephone blasted Peter Fallow awake inside an egg with the shell peeled away and only the the membranous sac holding it intact. Ah! The membranous sac was his head, and the right side of his head was on the pillow, and the yolk was as heavy as mercury, and it rolled like mercury, and it was pressing down on his right temple and his right eye and his right ear. If he tried to get up to answer the telephone, the yolk, the mercury, the poisoned mass, would shift and roll and rupture the sac, and his brains would fall out. (p.164)"
However, the arrangement of the chapters and different stories is very fragmented; there doesn't seem to be any organization other than, of course, a loose chronological unfolding of events. It is not difficult to keep track of what's going on, but it becomes very frustrating when attempting to try to tie every chapter or section to the others.
Overall, this book is decent, but there may be a few major downfalls that will prevent everyone from enjoying it.
Rating:
Summary: Attention to Detail
Review: The Bonfire of the Vanities clearly made several strong points about racism, sexism and capitalism in America, but I personally enjoyed the attention Wolfe paid to developing the characters and situations each character was in. All the plot lines are just built up by the indepth description of how each character was involved. The reader is never left wondering why the characters are doing what they are doing, but everything is very obviously connected by Wolfe's previous narrative that it gives the reader something to look to for clarification. Specific events such as the mayors obsession with mayonnaise "who in the name of God would bring a half eaten jar of mayonnaise to a public meeting?" or Sherman's confusion in the Bronx "Who on Earth would take the trouble to shove a chair in a chicken wire fence in this neighborhood?" also shows the actual character's detail orientedness, and perhaps shows that focus on detail is an inherent human flaw.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Book!
Review: This book by Tom Wolfe was interesting to a point. It gives a
good characterization of the many types of people that you will find in New York City. You have the Wall Street types,you have a black activist,you have society ladies. The book stays bogged bogged down in this routine tom the point of being nearly boring.
It becomes difficult to read after a point. I have read no more Tom Wolfe books after I read this one.Find this one in a used book store.
Rating: 
Summary: Book is missing a lot
Review: This book was a painfully unbalanced story to read because of the ridiculousness of the story. I rate it two stars because the author at least kept me going to see how it comes out in the end. Mostly it is a statement of the author's perspective of rich Wall Street, the poor Bronx, the sad shape of New York's criminal justice system [obviously pre-Rudy G.] and everyone else who sees life only as a game. Every character is either abusive of the power they have, or jealous because they have none. The only redeeming and real character in this book was detective Martin [and perhaps that is only because the author didn't have time to poke fun at him too... or maybe he did and I didn't get it.]. The author tries to make a hero out of a drunk, two-bit reporter. He was actually nothing more than a pawn used by others to minipulate public opinion. The main character, Sherman, is a successful, high-powered Wall Street bonds trader. One would expect him to have more intellegence. Sherman makes a lot of unbelievably stupid mistakes in his personal life that are impossibly contrary to his successful professional life. We are supposed to believe that he can read into the minds of the international bonds "crowd", predict market futures, and minipulate complicated billion dollar deals, but is manipulated by a sexy gold-digger just because of her Southern charm? Oh, yes, there was one other believable character in this book - Sherman's 6-year-old daughter, Campbell. Poor thing... her parents love her, but are so weak, she will never grow up normal. I admit, I didn't realize this was supposed to be a satire until I read the reviews on this site. Had I known, I never would have bought the book. There is no one in the book a reader can (or would want to) identify with or feel sorry for. Well, maybe Henry Lamb - but we never really know him.
Rating: 
Summary: A buddhist novel
Review: Buddhism has a term "samsara" which means the practice of grasping - for material things, fame, sex, etc. If it dominates your life it leads to severe disappointment at worst or an empty feeling at best. You just can't get a sense of yourself.
And that is the tragedy of "The Bonfire of the Vanities". Sherman doesn't have a sense of himself after losing the fruits of his samsara - money, home, respect, family. He redefines himself as a defendant in the legal system. But is that adequate?
And you can say the same thing about every character in the novel. Even the lawyer Kilian who seems to fare pretty well still isn't completely happy - he can't build his dream house.
After reading this brilliant novel, you can't help but think about the "meaning of life".
Rating:
Summary: Dickens for Our Day
Review: Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities" is the best American novel of the last c.20th, and ranks among the finest novels about New York of any era. Within the first few lines - initially unintelligible, until you realize they represent the crowd's chants of abuse for the liberal Mayor -- we are utterly absorbed into the mad, bitter, greedy morass that was New York in the mid-1980s. The images of the Bronx District Attorney forced to disguise as a tramp in order to survive the subway ride to work, of the gloriously profligate Indonesian ex-dictatrix gracing New York's finer restaurants, of British expatriates running the tabloids, of McCoy's arcane shenanigans at the financial exchange (trying to corner the market for French "Giscards"), of McCoy's high-maintenance mistress and of embittered ex-liberal judges cranking out harsh rulings are immortal. Two decades later, "Bonfire" is also something of a time capsule. Things have moved on so much since the 1980s it's inconceivable that the "Bonfire" could erupt again. Sherman McCoy would probably be a funds manager, not a stockbroker - and if he owned a flash car he'd have a GPS direction finder to keep him and Maria from going near the Bronx. Mrs. McCoy would be deep into self-empowerment and would have fired his cheating (...)years ago. Peter Fallow would be hosting Fox News; DA Kramer would be omnipotent under the zero tolerance laws and Reverend Bacon would be a regular on Geraldo.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't put it down...
Review: ...but I easily could have. Bleah. Dull and racist. I am not much of a Tom Wolfe fan at this point, having read and been bored by both "A Man in Full" and "Bonfire." I admit laughing at and being impressed by the vivid characterizations--the prose and powerful description does keep you going, but the plot definitely does not.
Rating:
Summary: Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast
Review: Lot of useful reviews here. No one mentions Wolfe's 24-page introduction, 'Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast,' which is excellent in itself as an overview of the alleged death of the novel, The New Journalism, non-fiction v. fiction & his own evolution as a writer. The introduction is worth a read on its own if you're a journalism student, a would-be or actual writer or just interested in the publishing world. As for the rest of the book, it's excellent. Wolfe is a master of the set piece, the extended vignette beautifully observing a situation or person. He is not so good at endings, which is why I picked four stars rather than five. I felt identically about his later "A Man in Full," and it didn't stop me enjoying the heck out of the book. If you enjoy his fiction, his non-fiction is well worth checking out as great examples of very controlled, observant reporting & writing. I particularly enjoyed "From Bauhaus to Our House," an extended essay about modern architecture, and "The Painted Word," ditto on modern art.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books of the Century
Review: This book is a great achievement in portraying the life and prosperity of the 1980s. The story involves characters that are not bigger than life. Through reading the decline of Sherman McCoy, one comes along a strongly written novel. At times you come across some of the funniest writing in English. Tom Wolfe is a genius.
Rating:
Summary: 80s commentary
Review: The frank story delivered by Wolfe has a powerful message that rings true in today's society, it was just a little long - 700 pages (I often found my self sifting through meaningless paragraphs). Sherman McCoy, who is a rich Wallstreet aristocrat, runs over a Bronx city hoodlum after being threatened. It is a commentary of 1980s society, and can be extended into the present time. Materialism, egotism, hypocrisy...even the middle-class assistant D.A., Kramer, is subject to these human flaws as he uses the case for personal gain and glory, as does the DA in his re-election. McCoy sums up a major point in the book in saying to his lawyer, "Your self -- I don't know how to explain it, but if, God forbid, anything like this ever happens to you, you'll know what I mean. Your self...is other people, all the people you're tied to, and it's only a thread." Of course, if this thread is cut, like it is for McCoy, what becomes of that "self?" Wolfe's story becomes a Greek tragedy on the major flaw of humans -- finding their identity in people, possessions, and power.
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