The Bonfire of the Vanities

‘Six hundred and fifty-nine pages of raw energy about New York City and various of its inhabitants - a big, bitter, funny, craftily plotted book that grabs you by the lapels and won't let go.’ – The New York Times Meet Sherman McCoy: wealthy, entitled, a New York City bond trader locked in a bubble of success that blinds him to virtually everything other than the excesses of his own existence. Fate, however, plays its hand, exposing McCoy to the wild winds of real life: burnt-out judges, sleazy newspaper editors, cops, publicity-hungry clergy, the rank and file of high and low living – all gripped in a picaresque frenzy to unseat our self-proclaimed master of the universe and bring him down to earth. Tom Wolfe brought all his previous journalistic skills to bear on what for many remains the quintessential novel of the 1980s. Sharp, virtuosic and grounded in solid research, Bonfire of the Vanities remains a true classic of 20th century fiction and sealed Wolfe’s as a genuine titan of American literature.