Book Review: Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

 

Book Review: Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

1987

Drama

4.0 stars out of 5

Tom Wolfe’s book from the late eighties about life in New York City in the late eighties is a very hard book to read. Not because it is poorly written – it is superbly written; but rather because it is about a time in American history and about a group of people that are painful to read about.

The book explores many themes besides the tenor, the zeitgeist of the times. To be sure, the violence and racism of the late eighties in America are a compelling topic. But Wolfe uses this theme as a framework to explore human nature across many of societies strata; an exploration with a very jaundiced point of view.

We meet Sherman McCoy as a seemingly very succesful  Wall Street bond salesman;  in his own self description, a Master of the Universe. Sherman’s vanities do not stop with his success at work, he is equally or even more vain of his Knickerbocker family history, and even of the size and nature of his chin. Sherman being a Master of the Universe needs of course the perfect mate, and since his wife Judy has started to age, Sherman takes a mistress, Maria Ruskin. Maria is of course vain about her beauty and ability to control men to get what she wants.

The story arc of the book follows Sherman and Maria on an ill-fated trip into the Bronx where they accidently run down a young African-American youth, who later dies from his injuries. A consequence of this accident, permits Wolf to introduce an English ex-patriot/alcoholic newspaperman (Peter Fallow)  to start the drum beat of public opinion to find the “hit and run” Sherman and Maria. Exhorting the local populace is the “Reverend” Bacon, while the assistant DA assigned to the case (Larry Kramer) flexes his neck muscles. Kramer simultaneously tries to convict Sherman once he’s been found and to seduce each attractive young woman he meets on the jury.

Part of the humor of the book is to view the various vanities of each character through the eyes of the other characters: Larry continously flexes his muscles and Sherman frequently juts his jaws to the bemusement of various on-lookers – meanwhile, both Larry and Sherman believe most intently that they are impressing rather entertaining their audience.

The reader could read the book with a view to the big story arc of Sherman’s fall in order to see how the climax and its resolution are treated. But I think a far better view to this book is to carefully explore with Wolfe the various characters and their vanities, and then watch how Wolfe destroys each one. To his credit, by the book’s end, I think Sherman is the only one who ever puzzles this out. And for me, this is what made reading the book worth the effort. Truly, this is a book of characters that I found myself endlessly hating, and hating for their vanties. By the book’s end though, I was forced to face my own vanities (they are multiform) and wonder how I would have functioned had I been one of the characters in the book. In fact, this book like many great books is a useful tool for self-exploration.

Note to the Reader: I had read this book in an effort to start a pet project that compares good books to the bad movies made from them. The DePalma movie Bonfire of the Vanities incomprehensively starring Tom Hanks as Sherman and Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow (not to mention several other very odd casting choices)has been widely panned. I thought then to compare the two in a later review. But having read this book, I may re-aim myself to compare bad books made into good movies. Two of my favorites being “Bridges Of Madison County” and “A River Runs Through It”: two pretty mediocre books made by Eastwood and Redford into profoundly good movies.