THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES

'''The Bonfire of the Vanities''' is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, class politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on four main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish Assistant District Attorney Larry Kramer, British expatriate journalist Peter Fallow and black politician Rev. Bacon.
The novel was a bestseller and a phenomenal success, even in comparison with Wolfe's other books. The title is a reference to a historical event, the Bonfire of the Vanities, which took place in 1497, in Florence, Italy, when the city was under the rule of the Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola. The story told in the book and the movie is ''not'' a retelling of this historic event, it is a reference to the ''vanities'' of New York society of the 1980s.

Contents

Plot summary

Style and content

Trivia

Footnotes

Plot summary

The plot centers on Sherman McCoy, whose life as a self-assumed "Master of The Universe" on Wall Street is destroyed when his mistress, Maria Ruskin, runs over a black youth (Henry Lamb) in the Bronx while driving McCoy's car.
Peter Fallow, a washed-up, drunken British journalist for the tabloid City Light, is given the opportunity of a lifetime when he is persuaded to write a series of articles about the case of a young black man who had been the victim of a hit and run by a white driver. Fallow is skeptical as he suspects that he is being used by a local religious and political leader, Reverend Bacon, who is using the case to improve his own political standing among New York's black community. Bacon uses the mother of the now comatose victim of the hit and run to benefit himself politically as a protector of the black community from the supposedly racist white establishment as well as financially through civil lawsuits against the hospital and McCoy.
When Sherman is identified as the owner of the car from the hit and run attack, Fallow begins a biased series of articles that insinuate Sherman McCoy's guilt (a series for which he is ultimately awarded a Pulitzer Prize). McCoy becomes the most hated man in New York City and the focus of relentless attacks from leftist demonstrators. Abe Weiss, a self-absorbed Bronx District Attorney up for re-election, decides that McCoy must be convicted by any means necessary (including obtaining false testimony from Sherman's mistress) so that he can use the conviction of McCoy to sway the black residents of New York City to re-elect him. Assisting him in the process is ADA Larry Kramer who sees this as an opportunity to rise above his mundane personal and professional life as well as to impress his new love interest, Shell Thomas, who was a juror at a previous trial.
When McCoy's mistress flees the country with another man in order to avoid having to admit to being the real driver, Sherman's private investigator discovers a recording of an incriminating conversation made by the landlord of Sherman and Ruskin's rendezvous. McCoy uses the tape (which he claims to have recorded himself) to have the initial charges against him dropped. The main narrative of the novel ends with a near riot outside the courtroom in which McCoy loses his head and almost knocks down several protesters.
In a fictional ''New York Times'' article at the end of the book, we learn that Fallow has married Steiner's daughter, and Maria (the mistress) has escaped prosecution while Sherman McCoy is penniless and estranged from his wife and daughter and awaits trial for manslaughter.

Style and content

''Bonfire'' was Tom Wolfe's first novel. Wolfe's works before the novel were mostly non-fiction journalistic articles and books. His earlier short stories included ''Mauve Gloves & Madmen'', and ''Clutter & Vine'', from his book of the same name. His fiction and non-fiction styles have much in common; specifically a fascination with the seemingly fantastic stories and surprising details in American life. Like his previous writing, ''Bonfire'' fuses intrigue, plot, and sociological detail.
For example, the plot relies on class conflicts in mid-1980s New York, and the exploitation of those conflicts by politicians and others, personal conflicts, and the culture of the Bronx Courthouse. In textured and lengthy chapters that could have been inspired by Émile Zola, Wolfe tells the reader that the court typist is, in a strange reversal, the haughtiest, best-paid employee; while the judge, usually superior and powerful in other courts, must divide his time equally between intimidating the crowd, the defenders, and the district attorneys in an (often futile) attempt to keep order.
Wolfe provides amusing asides on the gait of defendants, the clothing and peculiar accents of New Yorkers in every tier of society. Author Frank Conroy, in a ''New York Times Book Review'' article on the novel, said he found this attention to detail tiresome, especially the attention to accents. Wolfe responded that this attention to detail is essential and lamentably absent in most contemporary literature. In an article in ''Harper's Magazine'', Wolfe chastised modern authors for making excursions into mythic fantasy worlds in order to keep the novel fresh and interesting. It is his belief that journalistic research reveals a world more interesting and complex than anything a single author can dream up.
Wolfe did not intend his work to be a ''roman a clef''; most characters in ''Bonfire'' are not fictionalized accounts of real-life figures. According to Wolfe, the characters are composites of many individuals and cultural observations. However, some characters were based on real people. Wolfe has acknowledged the character of Tommy Killian is based on New York lawyer Edward Hayes, to whom the book is dedicated. The character of Reverend Bacon is not indiscreetly based on the Reverend Al Sharpton. It has also been suggested that the character of Peter Fallows is based on British expatriate journalist Christopher Hitchens. Additionally, it is likely that Gerald Steiner, the owner of the "City Light", is based on Australian media mogul, Rupert Murdoch.

Trivia

★ The judge in the novel was based on real-life Bronx Administrative Judge Burt Roberts.^[1]

★ In episode 2.07 of ''Family Guy'', ''The King is Dead'', Peter Griffin claims to have written ''The Bonfire of the Vanities''.

★ A Simpsons episode is called ''Bonfire of the Manatees''.

★ In the Futurama episode, ''The Day the Earth Stood Stupid'', Fry reads this book to destroy the evil brain invaders.

★ Pierce & Pierce (the firm McCoy works at) is also the firm of another fictional banker of the late eighties, Patrick Bateman, of ''American Psycho'' by Bret Easton Ellis.

Footnotes

1. "Bleeding Hearts," Village Voice, October 12th, 2004