Finished Th 12/4/14
Although it weighs in at 698 pages, I read every word. I found this novel (Wolfe's first) on the shelf downstairs, and I'm surprised that there is no date on the flyleaf when I last read it. I know I must have read it, or maybe I just saw the movie. But, I find it very hard to imagine Tom Hanks playing Sherman McCoy.
Sherman McCoy (Master of The Universe/ bond trader) is taking his mistress, Maria Ruskin, home from the airport and they get off the expressway, and find themselves lost in the Bronx. He's driving and they notice debris on the street, and think that they are being set up for a robbery. He gets out to move the stuff so that they can proceed, and two black teens ask if they need help. Sherman and Maria think they're about to be robbed, and Maria takes the wheel and Sherman jumps into the passenger seat. She clips one of the kids backing out, and puts him in a coma. This ends 'the good life' for Sherman.
Dozens of well-developed characters, and really examines the truly American issues of Race, Class, Prejudice, and our corrupt legal system.
It was ironic that during the week that I was reading the novel, the craziness in Ferguson, Mo was in the headlines, and the day before I finished the book, a NYC grand jury failed to indict a cop for killing a young black kid for murder after putting him in a deadly choke hold.
Tom Wolfe has a new novel set in the milieu of Miami and I'll probably start this one when I'm done with this month's selection for The Contemporary Book Club (THE HUSBAND'S SECRET)
Wikipedia entry for 'Bonfire of the Vanities'-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonfire_of_the_Vanities
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