786. The Bonfires of the Vanities

The Bonfires of the Vanities
Tom Wolfe
1987
Around 690 pages

I really did not enjoy The Electric Kool Acid Test, but I loved this. So I'm not totally crazy for continuing to read authors that I hate. Sometimes they can surprise you! 

The story centers on Sherman McCoy, a successful New York City bond trader. While driving through the Bronx with his mistress Maria Ruskin, they perceive two black men to be threatening. Fleeing the scene, they accidentally hit one of the men. The hit and run case is seized upon by many career and fame-hungry participants, including district attorney Abe Weiss and journalist Peter Fallow.

Getting behind the wheel is crazy. One minute you are a normal person doing errands, the next minute you could be a killer. Of course Sherman wasn't doing errands, but Wolfe still did a good job of making Sherman oddly sympathetic. He really did an excellent job capturing exactly how these cause celebres play out on the judicial and media level. It's...disheartening, to say the least. 

I can totally see how this could flop on screen, since so much of the brilliance of this novel is in its subtle commentary, which doesn't always translate to movies well. Great pacing, and one of those novels that doesn't feel nearly as long as it is.

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into a critically panned movie in 1990.

Ran in 27 installments in Rolling Stone. 

The title is a reference to the historical Bonfire of the Vanities, which happened in 1497 in Florence, Italy, when the city was under the sway of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola, who ordered the burning of objects that church authorities considered sinful, such as cosmetics, mirrors, books, and art.

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