Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe takes us into the world of mid-1980s New York City. The primary character is Sherman McCoy, millon-dollar income bond salesman on Wall Street. We learn about McCoy's patrician upbringing, going to all the right prep schools and then off to Yale all under the careful watch of his high-powered lawyer father who is an aristocrat's aristocrat. McCoy's life falls apart however, due to an affair with another married wealthy socialite. McCoy and his mistress get lost in the Bronx and come upon a makeshift roadblock. In an attempt to get away from two young black men, a scuffle ensues, the mistress takes the wheel and as they speed off, one of the young men, Harold Lamb, is hit by the back of the car. McCoy and his mistress decide not to talk to the police, but rather just to proceed as if nothing had happen.

And then we get to the real story. A Reverend Bacon (unmistakably Al Sharpton), intervenes with on behalf of Lamb's mother. Then Wolfe reveals to us how race, the media, trumped up public demonstrations, politicians, and other forces all work to pervert the truth and subvert the justice system. Undoubtedly McCoy was negligent at some level and it turns out that Henry Lamb was no mugger, but McCoy wasn't the villain. It's hard to feel bad for him...hell, it's hard to feel bad for nearly any character in the novel, but he doesn't deserve what happens to him. As to that, I'll leave it to you to read the book.

Wolfe's characterizations are, frankly, as deep and fleshed out as those developed by Charles Dickens and John Irving. It makes the novel longer, but it makes the novel oh-so-good. You feel you understand the motivations and all-too-human frailties of the characters. The plot ends with a rather contrived tool, but in all still an excellent book. As it is a snapshot of a period in time, I don't know that it will hold up over the years, but it's an excellent novel and one I should have read years ago.

As a quick aside, you can tell that Wolfe has no love of highbrow law firms. I loved it every time he mentioned McCoy's father's firm: Dunning, Sponget, & Leach. Really funny stuff. Just as good is another firm that had an unimportant role in the book: Curry, Goad, & Pesterall. Quality!