The Bonfire of the Vanities
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The novel was originally a serial in the style of Charles Dickens' writings; it ran in 27 installments in Rolling Stone magazine starting in 1984. Wolfe heavily revised it before it was published in book form. 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.
[edit] 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, Shelly 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.
[edit] 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.
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.
[edit] Footnotes
Works by Tom Wolfe | |
|---|---|
| Novels: | The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) • A Man in Full (1998) • I Am Charlotte Simmons (2004) • Back to Blood (expected 2009) |
| Essays: | "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast" |
| Essay collections: | Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine • The Pump House Gang • The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby • Hooking Up (inc. a novella) |
| Non-fiction: | The Purple Decades • From Bauhaus to Our House • In Our Time • The Right Stuff • The Painted Word • The New Journalism • Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers • The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test |
| Film adaptations: | The Right Stuff (1983) • The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) |
fr:Le Bûcher des vanités (roman) it:Il falò delle vanità (romanzo)
