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Summary: Sorry, There is no Hero.
Review: Wolfe is an amazing author. On a literary level this is one of the best books I've read. The dialogues in the book are marvelous while the writing itself creates some beautifully contrasting and yet similar characters. The book bleeds social and racial overtones that are devastatingly real and yet rarely put onto paper the way Wolfe has. The story is okay, but the lack of a hero left me detached from the whole thing. The book is worth reading however, if only to appreciate the bluntness and humanity in Wolfe's writting.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite book ever
Review: This book is a modern classic everyone should own. You could learn a lot by reading this book while being immensely entertained. Another reviewer said it is a piece of 1980's history, and I totally agree.
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Summary: Tells it like it is!
Review: I was born & raised in New York and lived there until 1987. This book perfectly captures the culture & attitudes of the city, its shrill power politics and opportunism and hypocrisy.Wolfe has called this a "social novel," a once popular form, now less so. The social novel is sociological, as opposed to psychological. It paints with a broad brush. Its "main character" is an entire city, or profession, or period in history (rather than the psychological novel's narrow focus on a single individual's inner thoughts & feelings). This book is funny and truthful. And despite its thickness, a quick read, because it's also an exciting page-turner.
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Summary: Steam control through human sacrifice
Review: When you filter out all the noise (ethnic conflict, unbrideled wealth & priviledge, Wall Street greed, extramaritial affairs, etc), this book is really a simple tale of human sacrifice. The main character (Sherman McCoy) is deliberately sacrificed by the powers that be (the NYC political establishment). This sacrifice is a means of achieving "steam control" by staging a sideshow to placate the "righteously angry" minority groups threatening to rise up and topple the status quo. Even so, its a fascinating story. Especially interesting is McCoy's transformation from a spoiled, arrogant Master of the Universe to a scrappy fighter whose only goal is survivial. Wolfe is obviously trying to tell us something about our future with this tale, but I'm not quite sure what.
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Summary: The fastest 680-odd pages you'll ever read.
Review: Wolfe tells a great story, keeps it moving, and fills it with wonderfully cunning and deceitful characters.
Rating:
Summary: The best!
Review: I read about 100 books a year (not bragging, just a lot of time on my hands), this is the best book I have every read. Looking forward to reading "A Man In Full", but I know I'll be disappointed, it just couldn't possibly live up to Bonfires.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books Ever Written--Fabulous
Review: Bonfire is my all-time favorite book and, in my opinion, Tom Wolfe is an absolute genius. A lot of talented authors tell us very good, sometimes great, stories, but few people have the genius to cut through all the trappings and see life exactly as it is. Tom Wolfe exposes the excesses of the 80s gloriously in this book. Okay, all the characters were hateful, but how could they have been otherwise? The only problem I found was the ending--I would have liked to have seen a little more resolution, but that doesn't detract from the book's perfection. My only real complaint is that Wolfe never gave us anything else to equal the sheer genius of Bonfire.
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Summary: I know it's cheesy to say this, but I couldn't put it down!
Review: This not only happens to be my favorite Tom Wolfe book, but my favorite book period. The plot is exciting and realistic. Readers will relate with every single character depicted here. And no one matches Wolfe's descriptive capabilities. What the rest of us would need a million words to say, Wolfe manages to express with a few key and very visual phrases. So far, there isn't a book I've enjoyed more.
Rating:
Summary: Great plot, boring narrative
Review: I loved the lampooning Wolfe did of the 1980s New York society life. It's hard for someone like me to imagine going broke on one million dollars a year, but it appears that in New York high society, it's very possible. The descriptions of the society matrons and trophy wives were hilarious -- that was pretty much my favorite part of the book. Although I enjoyed most of the character depiction, there were parts where the book really dragged. I hate it when I have to force myself to read the whole chapter and not skip pages because I'm afraid of missing something. All in all, a good book, but the endless depictions of New York City life and surroundings were a little much. In the end, I could have skipped not only pages, but whole chapters, because the outcome was nothing out of the ordinary.
Rating:
Summary: Die, Yuppie scum!
Review: I have been a Tom Wolfe fan for over two decades but continue to think that his real talent is for the essay and not for long fiction. Like Mailer, he seems to be able to string words together with unnerring skill but has trouble sustaining a tight narrative. Mostly, for me, what kept this book from coming alive was my dislike for the main characters. I just didn't care what happened to them. Rather, nothing could be bad enough. This is pure prejudice on my part, but I can't get past it. I hate these folks - their lifestyle, their values, their friends, their work, their entire social world - and I really don't want to read about them. Certainly not read this many pages. Couldn't he have punctured the hero's little life in half the number of pages and not left the reader so numb?
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