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Summary: Maybe it was Hip in the 80's .....
Review: But it falls flat in the 90's. I grew up in NYC during the 80's and I remember the fear and the bizarre crimes that took place then so I understood the climate that the book was written in but Tom Wolfe just dragged everything out to the point that I had to simply skim it to get through it.I know many people loved this book but I really felt it was dated and the writing was bland.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, Not Great
Review: As I first began reading the book several years ago, I thought it was quite intriguing and well-done. As the book went on however, I realized none of the characters were three-dimensional. The situations in which they were placed could certainly happen, but the complexity of character doesn't equal the plot structure. It was worth reading, but it's not something I'll ever return to.
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Summary: Cynicism at its Uttermost Exquisiteness
Review: This is one of the best stories I've ever read. It's intelligent, hysterical, very cynical and yet, so very real. Not only did it capture my attention during its 700pages -to the point I just couldn't go to sleep - but also I actually felt sad once I realized there was no more book to read and that it was over. I had become so attached to the characters - it was almost as if I had become one of their friends - and also I went so into it that I was dragged into its own pace and timing. In the end (don't freak out, I'm not gonna say how it ends) I realized that I 'd become agitated myself as action took place at such a high speed -as if I had been there all the time: if a book is capable of making a person perspire and agitate in his armchair and laugh loudly and histerically, so hard that he is unable to continue reading, then it must be a masterpiece. And this is most certainly one.
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Summary: Please Don't See the Movie
Review: This is the only book I took with me on a three-month trip to Europe. It was plenty. A huge, beautiful, juicy paean to New York, to Americans, and finally to Sherman himself, Bonfire grabs the reader and doesn't let go. I would ration myself, a chapter a day, because I didn't want it to end. Then I reread the whole book on a six-hour train ride and didn't even mind the motion sickness. Whatever you do, don't see the movie, or you will forever be tormented by Bruce Willis as a dissolute London reporter, Tom Hanks as the quintessential 80s bondsman who's lost his way and Melanie Griffith as...well..who knows? Read this book as fast as you can and then read it again. It's like time travel back to the era of "Greed is good".
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Summary: Tom Wolfe Rulz
Review: Tom Wolfe creates the characters, situations, plot and prose to make even the weathered reader gasp. After reading A Man In Full, this book was again a triumph of the emotions, thoroughly enjoyed.
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Summary: Pure Genius
Review: A perfect attack on the pompous attitudes possessed by the rather "well off".
Rating:
Summary: PURE GENIUS
Review: This is an excellent attack on the pompous attitudes posessed by the rather "well off".
Rating:
Summary: Incisive, hilarious, harrowing, and timeless.
Review: I can't help but be amused at the irony of how this satirical masterpiece, among whose targets is the ridiculous overpoliticization of our age, tends to be viewed by its admirers and detractors alike through ideological blinders. Some view it as an attack on the "Decade Of Greed," as if that basic human frailty could be confined to a single period of time. Some see it as a jeremaid against liberalism, as if the more asinine PC platitudes of the Left somehow discredit the entire liberal enterprise. Some view it as a repudiation of the wealthy, although Wolfe shows in agonizing detail that greed, lust, envy, ruthless ambition and pathological self-absorption can be found on all the rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. Others think it's strictly about New York, and in one sense they're right; but most of the foibles depicted in "Bonfire" can be found in Anyburg, U.S.A. Others grouse that the characters are too morally ambiguous: McCoy is too much an admixture of hero, villain, and victim for them to know how to respond to him. And where's the happy ending? Look, the whole point of good satire is to shed light on the more pathetic aspects of the human condition, not to grind specific social, cultural, or political axes or to prescribe panaceas. What "Bonfire," like all good satire, does is force us to confront the demons in our own hearts and minds and reexamine our motivations and actions. Wolfe's book has something to offend (and challenge) everyone: rich folks, poor folks, blacks, whites, Jews, Christians, agnostics, New Yorkers, non-New Yorkers, liberals, conservatives, politicians, journalists, lawyers, cops, crooks, bums, husbands, wives. This novel transcends time, place, and ideology. It's one for the ages.
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Summary: Excellent! A No-Holds Barred Attack On Eighties' Culture
Review: I am an English major, and THE BONFIRES OF THE VANITIES is one of the few books I have ever read which has caused me to laugh out loud. For this reason, I believe it belongs alongside Catch-22 and Breakfast of Champions as one of the funniest an most intelligent satires of the 20th century. I will admit that I laughed the most loudly at the obvious, although well-set-up punch lines. However, the real joy of reading this book is not the trip-and-fall jokes, but rather the wry, dry, witty, and acid-tongued descriptions, characterizations, and prose which Wolfe fills his pages with. Wolfe is a little bit pretensious, a little bit obnoxious, and very funny. It is not racist to make fun of blacks if you make fun of WASPs, Jews, the British, men, women, and just about every other possible demographic group known to man. A telling sign of a wildly overambitious novel is one who's ending has difficulty wrapping up the exploits of all of the main characters without feeling contrived or forced. Unfotuntaly, this is where THE BONFIRES OF THE VANITIES fails. But for over 600 pages, it is a knee-slapping, bellylaughing, observation-deck yawp of a novel, and a whale of a good read.
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Summary: I find myself returning time and time again...
Review: This is my favorite book by my favorite author. It is a book I pick up from time to time, flip open to any page and immediately become engrossed. Every passage is a gem. It is dead-on social commentary and far closer to the truth than any piece of non-fiction.
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