What We're Reading: "The Bonfire of the Vanities" by Tom Wolfe

by NICOLE THOMAS

After enjoying the 1990 Brian De Palma adaptation, I decided to read The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. Wolfe, known for The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Right Stuff, explores social class, money and power in New York City during the decadent 1980s. Bonfire follows Sherman McCoy, a wealthy bond trader at the top of his career, with a wife, child and mistress. Sherman and his mistress are involved in an accident with a Black teenager in the Bronx, unleashing a procession of opportunists. Readers can expect to be drawn into the complexities of socioeconomic divides and justice, with grift at every level of society and an expansive cast of intertwining characters.