Author: Tom Wolfe
Enjoyment Rating: ***
Source: Audible
This book would be rated: R for language, sex, violence
Back when I was counting the number of books I read each year, I doubt I would have chosen to listen to The Bonfire of the Vanities. It's 27 hours long (almost 700 pages in print). It kept me company through all of my February runs so far, and I'm glad to say that I've finally come to the end of it.
Sherman McCoy is wealthy Wall Street bond trader who lives on Park Avenue with his wife and daughter. When he and his mistress get lost in the Bronx and accidentally hit an African American teenager who they thought was trying to rob them, it starts off a firestorm throughout the city. Everyone from the Al Sharpton-esque minister/community organizer to the DA running for re-election, to the mayor, to the press, wants to use the case to advance his or her position.
I've read most of Wolfe's novels, so I know what I'm getting myself into when I decide to descend into one of them. There will be lots of sex and lots of words. And Bonfire of the Vanities was no exception. But listening to Tom Wolfe is a different experience from reading Tom Wolfe. By the end of the 27 hours, there were certain catch phrases that I'd become so accustomed to hearing that I could say them along with the narrator. I think that if Bonfire of the Vanities had been 400 pages instead of almost 700, it would have been a better book, and maybe I would have felt more sympathy for the hapless McCoy after everyone took a piece of him at the end of the novel. Instead, I was just glad it was over.
No comments:
Post a Comment