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Summary: Brilliant fun, but often frustrating.
Review: Tom Wolfe brilliantly depicts New York City, the justice system and the police force of NYC in his best work ever. But its frustrating hearing the demonstrations and accusations of racism. Wolfe also portrays the stupidity of political correctness and liberalism. Wolfe is one of the greatest American writers in history.
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Summary: If you need a page turner for a long uncomfortable flight...
Review: ...this is the book you should take. The characters are so entertaining and the plot(s) so interesting that it will divert you and keep you engrossed all the way to Hong Kong. The only drawback will be when you have to stifle your laughter! The mixture of types that make New York what it is are all depicted with wry humor and a keen eye for fakery. No one sees through people's social poses like Tom Wolfe! He even presciently created the character of Reverend Bacon before our real life version, Al Sharpton came on the scene.
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Summary: GREAT MASTERPIECE
Review: Deliciously skewers liberalism. Only a smug liberal couldn't understand or enjoy the fun.
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Summary: The best!
Review: I originally read this book in my bathroom around 1-3am every night til done back in the late 80s (pregant too!). What more can one say?
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Summary: The 1980's Between Two Covers
Review: From it's thrilling opening to its open-ended conclusion, this is a book you not only want to keep reading and reading but never forget about afterwards. All the characters - their wants, fears, ambitions, and failures - make them human and believable. Depraved though they may all be, they are too complex merely to be shrugged off as "unlikable." What makes this book great is not only its wonderful and on-point observations of New York but also its brilliant little touches: "The Masters of the Universe," the wonderful "Hack hack hack hacking" laughs, the hilarious tabloid headline "Scalp Grandma, Then Rob Her" and on and on and on. I predict that fifty years from now school kids will be reading this along with "The Great Gatsby" as one of the defining novels of the twentieth century. It is a fierce and uncompromising look at "the way we live now" and its greatness comes from the fact that it doesn't spare anyone. I could write a whole book about how good "Bonfire" is and surely this book exists on so many levels that years from now people will write multitudes about its numerous meanings. And so on. One question: what does "Heh-heggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh" mean?
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Summary: Sherm Becomes a Man
Review: Sherman McCoy grows up to be a real man in Bonfire of the Vanities. Mr. Wolfe seems intensely interested in ideals of manhood, as they play a prominent role in both of his novels. With humor and aggressive prose, Mr.Wolfe portrays manhood and its attendant duties and responsibilities very well in Bonfire of the Vanities. And finally, as a role model for us all, let us not forget Abe Weiss and his noble attempts to bring justice to Bronx County.
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Summary: Refreshing
Review: A refreshing change from perfect "Grisham-esque" heroes and endings. If you are interested in reading a novel about the true (albeit somewhat exaggerated) nature of the human condition in the 80s, read this book! Excellent!
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Summary: an out of towner's attempt to depict NY
Review: A poor disjointed sketch of New York.This book came to me with great recommendation.Terrible disappointment.Characters not developed fully but left up in midair.Lots of cliches.Describes Bronx like an out of towner from Utah or somewhere,typical white reaction to black abodes.If police story is what you want, read Joseph Wambaugh.Honest stories, not grandiose cocktails of Bond Millionaires and Attornies.For cynicism and society parties, watch Woody Allen.No one person ,not even Tom Wolf can sketch a true picture of New York.He has seen the tail of the elephant,the other blind men have seen the rest.New york is too big for writers to do justice.
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Summary: It's absolutely brilliant. I couldn't put it down.
Review: I had wanted to read A Man in Full, but it wasn't in paperback yet, so I bought The Bonfire of the Vanities out of curiosity. I do not regret it one whit. It is perhaps the first book in years that I literally couldn't put down, and the first book since The Great Gatsby that I didn't want to end because I didn't want to leave Sherman McCoy out there on his own. Wolfe was brave to embrace all of New York society and politics in this novel- and he carries it with almost shocking confidence. The racial tensions he sets up would be death to an author more faint of heart. But not Mr. Wolfe, whose story benefits from his risks. A criticism of the book is that the hero isn't likable enough, but I found that to be on of his greatest achievements. Who didn't see the flaws in Jay Gatsby? A hero is, by definition, a flawed man. Sherman McCoy is that and more. I highly reccomend this book.
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Summary: Bonfire deserves its namesake. Don't waste your time.
Review: Bonfire may be the worst book I've attempted to read in the last five years. I say "attempted" because I finally became so disgusted with the thought of wasting another second of my life reading this wretched book, that I at last put it down for good.To be fair, Mr. Wolfe has an excellent grasp of the 1980's in New York, and from my own experience his descriptions of bond salesmen are pointedly accurate (allowing for slight artistic hyperbole). Unfortunately, his characters so totally fail to captivate any sypathy/interest/buy-in on the part of the reader, that I when I would pick up the book to read a chapter or two, I found myself questioning my own judgement...."Why?" Some may say that the shallowness of the characters is exactly what Mr. Wolfe intended -- a perfect fit for the terribly cliche view of the 80's as the decade of materialism. I believe that line of reasoning is just a poor excuse for bad character development. I feel no sympathy, distain or otherwise care at all about any of the characters or what happens to them. The only emotion cultivated by this text is one of disappointment that I bothered to read most of it. Bonfire stands as the only novel I've started and never finished. I came to a point where I decided it was better to cut my losses and ditch the book rather than invest any more time in it.
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