Rating: 
Summary: Like the literary equivalent of the Cheesecake Factory
Review: ... this book has all the trappings of class while never surrendering its large-scale consumer appeal as "fiction." BOTV has several dimensions - on one level, it's a satirical look at the dog-eat-dog world of upper-crust 1980s NYC, where power, greed and rabid statusmongering are the rule. Even if you just stay on that level, Bonfire is a great read - alternately very funny and sobering, though the prevailing dismal view of human nature may depress you.
On another level, BOTV has something to say about American society, human nature and, I think, the nature of desires themselves. Even the most hard-nosed conservative will wince at Wolfe's unrelentingly cynical view of black "civil rights leaders" who invariably turn out to be corrupt (interestingly, BOTV has not a single positive black character - unless you count Lamb, who's dead). And even liberals like me cringe at his description of made-for-TV "mass demonstrations" orchestrated by know-nothing urbanites.
Political sensibilities aside however, BOTV shows that even those who seem one-dimensionally "bad" to their antagonists often have at least a glimmer of decency. It's also a poignant commentary on what desires are real and which ones are products of the lives we lead; the hope for love versus the longing for exotic and dapper clothes, for instance. If you wanna think about it, this book can do us all a lot of good.
... and heck, if you don't, it's still a good way to kill some time.
Rating: 
Summary: A Modern Classic
Review: Although several reviewers have claimed that elements of this novel have dated the essence of this novel will always be relevant. True this was written pre-internet, pre-Clinton, pre 9/11 but the vanities that drive the chattering classes, so perfectly satirised by the author, are an inherent characteristic of moneyed urban dwellors anywhere on this planet. The spiralling nature of the plot complements the authors heady character descriptions and set-pieces.
I know several people who have read and hated this novel because of its ultimately bleak portrayal of humanity. I however found it marvellously uplifting (not to mention hilarious) and view the book more as a dark fable on the perils of ambition in a capitalist society. The reader should note that most of the novel's characters would be regarded as successful in their respective professional lives and that each of those characters have lost a little bit of their soul to get where they are. What Wolfe allows us to ponder is : Is this what it takes to get to the top?
Rating: 
Summary: Fast paced narrative
Review: Best description of this book is that of bridge between the genre novels and literature. It is not very good literature nor is it as bad (some might say less interesting) as genre novels. The characters and character descriptions are overstated and could very well have been written by anyone after reading 10-15 crime thrillers. The redeeming feature of this book is the work Tom Wolfe put into collecting a lot of information about a particular period in a particular city, varying from inner-city housing projects, jail cells, attorney's offices and high society life.
The story is that of a fundamentally decent white male getting caught up in a minor traffic accident and getting exploited by the society around him. A criticism I have is that the characters who donot belong to the traditionally wealthy (means non WASP men according to the author) are portrayed as upstarts resentful of old wealth and wanting to bring them down to their level. For some reason there is not a single character in this book who want to rise up and be equal to the traditionally wealthy by honorable means.
Rating:
Summary: Impressively Accurate and Gripping
Review: I can understand how this book was such a milestone. True genius, in the journalistic style--for portraying so well the status and money-obsessed nature of New York, which still holds true today. Wolfe does a terrific, and I mean really terrific, job at describing the city's political climate and how easily people can be taken advantage of once power and money are thrown into the mix.
Each character's intense need to better his or her own situation is at the center of how each of them relate to the story. In that, the story is essentially a description of how five New Yorkers cross paths and manage to further and better their personal situations, at the expense of a rich Wall Street trader's criminal mistake and inward feelings of guilt. Even though Sherman McCoy's character is portrayed as your typical snooty financial industry professional, the way in which he is brought down is dismaying in itself. He is used as a scapegoat for the ills of the White Establishment by a crooked, black political figure (using the hypocrisy of the church to better himself); used as "the Great White Defendant" by an insecure, self-critical assistant DA to make his career as a trial lawyer; used as centerpiece of a tabloid story to build a shallow, alcoholic reporter's journalist career; used to displace blame by a promiscuous, sleek money-hungry trophy wife... The Bonfire shows the lengths people will go to in order to get ahead and the lack of underlying trust for others, irregardless of money and status. The book is a lesson in city life, opportunism, greed, and a fundamental lesson in our very nature and how we operate, in the strict, economic sense of the term.
In another vein, the plot takes some movie-like twists and turns that dont necessarily work well in writing. Overall, an amazing piece of work, but seems very well suited to the screen more than anything else...I still have to rent the movie!!! Overall, a gripping and very accurate rendition of the city lives we all dream of living.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Satire That Nails The 80's Down Flat!!!
Review: I cannot believe that it has actually been over a decade since I read Tom Wolfe's THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES; it is a brilliant and hilarious entertaining work of satirical fiction, and a dead-on accurate social commentary of everything that made up the 1980's, commonly (and accurately) known as The Greed Decade. This includes the incendiary racial conflagrations that had been simmering throughout the 1970's that finally began to unravel during the 80's, aided and abetted by an increasingly sensationalist media that practiced underhanded "divide and conquer" tactics in order to keep the middle and working classes down by improperly (and sneakily) shifting the discussion from class to race.Wolfe captures all that here, albeit in a lighter tone, by following four separate tracks concurrently, and how they all come together: Financially successful but amoral and philandering nouveau-riche bond trader Sherman McCoy, professional successful but financially wanting assistant prosecutor Lawrence Kramer, professionally unsuccessful and perpetually inebriated British-born tabloid 'journalist' Peter Fallow, and socially powerful (but under-respected) self-proclaimed African-American leader Reverend Reginald Bacon. The bonfire that their vanities create is fascinating; but what is best about this book is the insightful and real-to-life humor/social commentary that Wolfe weaves into the story throughout. If you're a relatively young reader who was born in the 80's and thusly do not remember it the way that, let's say, those of us born in 1967 do, then the reading of this book is absolutely essential to understanding all the different dysfunctional facets that made the 1980's the way it was. Do not be put off by the story's length (705 pages); it is so enjoyable and is such a compulsive page-turner that it is likely that it will only take you a week or less to get through it all. Pick this one up and treat yourself to the hilarious world of THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES---and if you must, rent the 1990 Brian De Palma-directed misfire and see just how totally inept Hollywood was in capturing this world. THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES has earned its proper place one of the greatest---and most important---works of fiction in the 20th Century. MOST RECOMMENDED; AGES 17 & UP
Rating: 
Summary: Dark, bleak, dirty and dead
Review: I have not bothered to read the last 100 pages of this book because the firtst 450 are just filled with self-serving, hypocritical, lying ogres. Everyone is either living a lie, milking the system, or worse. If you want to read about a corrupt world, where idealism is dead, pickup this book and read away.
Rating:
Summary: i had to read this book for class.
Review: i thought it was pretty good. sometimes tom wolfe's writing style really got on my nerves, especially when he tried to turn sounds into words. "shuhmun" was okay but "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeghhhhhhhhhhhh" took it a lil bit too far. if you knowhumsayin'.
Rating:
Summary: brilliant and compelling
Review: I was put off this book for quite some time because of having seen the film, but, finally decided to give it a go (despite having a paperbackl edition with the film characters on the cover...) This book is an example of what a meticulous, fearless and talented writer of prose can come up with in response to the world around him. While being a great 'page-turner' as far as plot goes, Wolfe manages, through a complex web of ironies and double ironies, to examine humanity as a social creature in a certain time and place. He deals so breath-takingly honestly with his characters that many readers might blanche, and want to point fingers at the author, something Wolfe is couragous enough to bear, obviously. He does not set himself up as a prophet - like many modern 'social-awareness' authors - and I am sure does not absolve himself from many of the 'vanities' that are examined in this book. He tries to be honest, deal honestly with his characters and, thus, his readers, which is perhaps so strange in this literary day and age that it is considered reactionary. It is not. It is a novelist. I will certainly be reading more Wolfe, who has now become my favourite living American author.
Rating:
Summary: All fired up and no place to go
Review: It's not often that you could say that a book changed your life, but Tom Wolfe's BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES did just that for me. No, it's not life changing in the way that McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD is, with its glorious food for thought, hysterical passages, and extreme messages, but it did make me think on an entirely new level. I was a college drop-out doing nothing with my life and one day my sister gave me this book. I'm not a big reader but I could not put this book down. I became completely involved with the great characters in this book, young attorney, Larry Kramer, writer Peter Fallow, Reverand Reginald Bacon, and of course, Sherman McCoy. Wolfe wrote in such terrific detail that you feel as if you'd known these characters all your life. I started talking about them in conversations like they were close friends of mine. The story itself is incredible, taking you through the highs and lows of four main characters with Sherman being the tie that binds them all. Now, as for the life-changing part, I knew very little about the stock market, but after seeing the high-life that Sherman led, the luxury car, the Park Ave. Co-Op, and of course his lovely ladies, wife Judy and mistress, Maria Ruskin, I knew thats what I wanted for myself(except for the mistress, of course). So, I took a couple of classes, read a few books and I passed my stockbroker exam on the first try. Wall Street has been great to me--I have a job I love, great friends and surroundings and I met my wife at my firm. In short, I have never been happier and I have Tom Wolfe and his tale of a wealthy financier to thank. Must also recommend the DOGWOOD book by McCrae and another called A MAN IN FULL by the author of BONFIRE.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Potent
Review: On the surface, the book is a satire of the puffed up 80s. The "Vanities" that are being blown up are all the pretensions that people put around themselves. Sherman McCoy is a man who would've exuded strength and power in a prior age. But is he a "Master of the Universe" bond trader (a term coined by Tom Wolfe, later to make it into the popular lexicon) or just another fluffed up product of society? Indeed, the book explores this question. You'll be surprised by the answer! Is it just a novel of the 80s? I disagree, for several reasons...
- The greed of the 80s reappeared in the past 5 years.
- If you look hard enough, one of the characters in the book is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.
- The deep characters Wolfe creates ring true today.
- New York again sees itself in a time of great change. Maybe there are lessons in this literature? Is it the Great American Novel? Who knows... But it can be read with "A Man in Full" to understand grit, determination and what does make America different.
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