Rating: 
Summary: uhh..?
Review: This book is so incredibly overrated its sickening. its mainstream tripe for the philistine reader of our age.But I give this 2 stars instead of one, only because I suppose it will be good treadmill exercise for the reader that doesn't read much and wants to make themselves feel literate.
Rating: 
Summary: It could have been a contender
Review: This formulaic novel is fast-moving (except for Chapter 15.) It also provides insights on human nature and the sociology of New York City, circa 1987.
Unfortunately, the plot breaks down near the end, in Chapter 31. The riot scene in the courtroom seems unrealistic, as does Sherman McCoy's too sudden transformation from petrified Wall Street elite to a guy ready to take on everyone in the Bronx.
The story, which progresses steadily and surely through the first 30 chapters, comes to a too easily wrought end with the equivalent of a roaring car chase rather than by bringing all of the strands of the story together at trial.
At the risk of seeming vain, and although still following the formulaic structure, I believe Wolfe would have been better served by the following outline for an ending:
The case goes to trial ... Kramer argues the State's case ... Maria Ruskin testifies against McCoy ... Roland Auburn testifies against McCoy ... Killian plays the tapes ... Judge Kovitsky discovers that Killian and McCoy have tried to get a crucial tape of a conversation between Ruskin and McCoy into evidence despite knowing it was illegally made ... Peter Fallow makes headline news of all of this and Reverend Bacon states that vindication is at hand ... just when all seems lost for McCoy,
Henry Lamb awakens from his coma, and being the honest, college-bound kid he is, testifies that Ruskin and Auburn lied about how he got hurt ... the rest of the newspapers and TV stations
in NYC jump on this news, crucifying Fallow's reporting, Bacon's posturing, and Kramer's baseless prosecution ... now comes the verdict: not guilty ... Maria Ruskin is convicted of perjury and perhaps it looks like she'll lose her fortune gained from marrying the geriatric and now-deceased Arthur Ruskin ... Auburn is also convicted of perjury, his plea deal is cooked and he is sent to Rikers for all of his prior offenses ... Fallow is fired and finished in journalism: he returns to England to rot in his alcoholic stew ... Kramer keeps the job he so hated before taking on the McCoy case, never again the star in the D.A.'s office and with even less of a chance of getting a job like the high-paying kind in a Wall Street firm he so envies; Kramer's nascent affair isn't discovered, but the girl with brown lipstick won't have anything more to do with him ... McCoy no longer must fear being thrown into Rikers, but his marriage is destroyed; McCoy's ability to regain his former stature on Wall Street and look at life from the point-of-view of an American aristocrat is irreparably compromised; McCoy's 8-year-old daughter is really the only one who still believes in him just as much as in the days when he thought himself a Master of the Universe ... can there really be any winners after The Bonfire of the Vanities?
As it is, Wolfe's novel is surely more than passable entertainment, but misses the mark as one of the greatest novels of the 20th Century because of its formulaic structure and subpar ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Wildly Entertaining Social Commentary
Review: What a great book! I loved it. Wolfe expertly paints the struggle between socio-economic factions, including racial and economic unrest, among various neighborhoods and burroughs of 1980s New York City. Get a glimpse of Park Avenue luxury , inner city slumming, and working class struggles to make ends meet, and what happens when the paths of all three come crashing together.
Wolfe does an excellent job at exposing the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of all his characters without coming right out and creating a villain of anyone, proving that none of us are our worst deeds--nor our best.
Tragic and severe at times, at others hilarious and outrageous, but always astute in his powers of observation, Wolfe has created one of the must-reads for contemporary American culture.
The conclusion robs the book of 5-star status.
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