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Tom Wolfe

The Bonfire of the Vanities (Picador Books) Paperback – 1 Aug. 1990

by Tom Wolfe (Author)

584 ratings

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The Bonfire of the Vanities
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One night in the Bronx a millionaire, Sherman McCoy, and his mistress have an accident. The next day a young Black is in hospital in a coma as McCoy heads for disaster. His humiliation is at the centre of a satire on the decaying class, racial and political structure of New York in the 1980s.

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Product details

Paperback : 752 pages
ISBN-10 : 0330305735
ISBN-13 : 978-0330305730
Dimensions : 19.6 x 4.3 x 13 cm
Publisher : Picador; New edition (1 Aug. 1990)
Language: : English

Best Sellers Rank: 405,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 34,966 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- 43,730 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

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584 ratings

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Customer reviews

5 star		67%
4 star		15%
3 star		10%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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hilzb

I don’t know why this book is considered ‘a classic’.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2018

Verified Purchase

I’m only halfway through reading this. I find the long descriptive passages covering characters and scenes too much and find I’m skimming these paragraphs. Wolfe is writing as though he’s giving descriptions for movie scenes. There is too much of this. I’d like the story to unfold more rapidly to hold my interest.

11 people found this helpful

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Heather

Gripping

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 October 2018

Verified Purchase

Interesting setting in time mid 80s and so racist in New York. Not to blacks alone but overt distinctions made between Irish, Jewish, white (WASPS) but of course black worse. An education in New York at the time.
Gripped by Wolfe's ability to show the story through dialogue and action. I did not want this book to end.
Struck how women are never portrayed sympathetically, no women's characters are developed. That said the male characters are not sympathetically portrayed. All their faults and foibles are on show, their vanities. Love it!

4 people found this helpful

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peej 34

NOT for me I’m afraid

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2019

Verified Purchase

I’m lucky to read 2/3 books per week, of various genres. I’ve never left a review before but feel I have to comment this time.
I’ve never been so baffled/bored/mystified by a book....... I hate to give up and battled on for 27%, but then conceded that as I would never get my time back battling on with it I gave up.
I really tried but in parts it was almost like it was written in code or an alien language.....or maybe it’s just ‘I didn’t get it’ .
I really wanted to read about 1980’s New York but just could not engage with any of the characters at all and found it far too ‘wordy’ and descriptive about things I just did not understand.
Anyway, on to my next book :-D

3 people found this helpful

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Very happy to have this modern classic on Kindle

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 July 2018

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I cannot express how happy I am that Vintage have released a number of Wolfe’s back catalogue on Kindle. I have been checking their status every now and then so when this appeared as a Daily Deal I whooped. For those unfamiliar with Wolfe, this is an excellent one to start with. For me it gives me an opportunity to reread a favourite. Much better than the film!

3 people found this helpful

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maldon

Authors publishers and amazon can communicate to make great books available to a wider audience

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 July 2019

Verified Purchase

Read this book years ago and loved it then what did I do lent it to a “friend” who promised to return it and the book never came back to me surprise surprise anyway over the years I trawled bookshops and charity shops and amazon to no avail but some time ago learned that amazon gives customers the opportunity to request amazon to communicate with the author or representatives of the author to make their books available on kindle so I ticked ticked that box for the book I am reviewing and a few others. Came back probably months later and delighted to find that this great read was available for kindle readers. Thank you amazon for making this classic read available to the e book family. The book is a reflection of the greedy yuppie eighties set in New York set amidst racism and wannabes and the ultra rich a bit like the JR and Dallas days and how the mighty fall if you purchase this Tom Woolf classic I hope you won’t be disappointed.
“

One person found this helpful

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Tone the Cone

Captures the 80s Greed is Good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 May 2019

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A book club selection for me.
It captures the ethics of the 80s in Wall Street "Greed is Good" The fashions of the time, massive shoulder pads get a nod.
The story improves as you read on. A bit ploddy to start with but when all the characters start coming together in the plot it steams ahead. I found the book a little too long, could well have been trimmed a bit without really loosing any real content.
what I did like about the story that everyone in the book comes out with egg on their faces.

One person found this helpful

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Markmywords

The test of time

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 July 2020

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I read this when it first came out and was blown away by the energy of the writing - an invigorating cautionary tale in which, refreshingly, almost none of the characters are spared from Wolfe's acidic pen.
What struck me (in the summer of 2020) is how relevant it all feels today, from the crude exploitation of 'the mob' to the tiering of the US justice system in which your income can profoundly influence your fate.
A few of the reviews below have criticised the book for verbosity and unnecessary detail, which surprised me, in an era in which authors routinely take 500 pages to express an emotional landscape Graham Greene could have painted in a third of that. I don't think it's a fair criticism either. The novel is pacy and the scene-setting is there to contextualise the 'vanities' of the title.

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"mric850"

Can I get a refund?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 July 2020

Verified Purchase

This book was totally outside my experience of Amazon. The first 200 pages were fine and I was enjoying it as I had intended to read it for some time ( big book, good lockdown choice), but after that the print quality was appalling. Everything was blurred beyond being readable , two copies of the same line were imposed on top of one another, unevenly, and I had to give it up as a bad job. I looked for another way of contacting you but could not find one. Ples contact me and advise. It's not worth sending it back to you.

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