The Bonfire of the Vanities Audiobook By Tom Wolfe cover art

The Bonfire of the Vanities

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The Bonfire of the Vanities

By: Tom Wolfe
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
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This bitingly hilarious American satire will forever define late twentieth-century New York style.

Tom Wolfe’s bestselling modern classic tells the story of Sherman McCoy, an elite Wall Street bond trader who has it all: wealth, power, prestige, a Park Avenue apartment, a beautiful wife, and an even more beautiful mistress, until one wrong turn sends Sherman spiraling downward in a humiliating fall from grace.

A car accident in the Bronx involving Sherman, his girlfriend, and two young lower-class Black men sets a match to the incendiary racial and social tensions of 1980s New York City. Suddenly, Sherman finds himself embroiled in the most brutal, high-profile case of the year, as prosecutors, politicians, the press, the police, the clergy, and assorted hustlers rush in to further their own political and social agendas. With so many egos at stake, the last priority on anyone’s mind is truth or justice.

©1987 Tom Wolfe (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Literary Fiction Funny Literature & Fiction Satire Witty Genre Fiction Classics

Critic reviews

"A big, bitter, funny, craftily plotted book that grabs you by the lapels and won't let go." ( New York Times Book Review)
"Sheer entertainment against a fabulous background....Often hilarious, and much, much more." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"Erupting from the first line with noise, color, tension and immediacy....brilliant." ( Publishers Weekly)
Compelling Storyline • Vivid Character Development • Versatile Voice Acting • Social Commentary • Satirical Humor

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Where does The Bonfire of the Vanities rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I would rank it in the top ten, among Atlas Shrugged, Unbroken, East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Fall of Giants, Gone with the Wind, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Who was your favorite character and why?

It's hard to find a favorite character. There weren't many admirable people.

What about Joe Barrett’s performance did you like?

The way he changed his voice, evoking classes and prejudices.

If you could rename The Bonfire of the Vanities, what would you call it?

A Perfect Storm of Classes

Any additional comments?

It was interesting to see some of the characters recognize their own faults, only to be unable to do anything about them.

Excellent all the way around

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Wolfe's journalistic eye for detail is fully on display in this brilliant novel. While the writing is admittedly long-winded at times, the patient listener is led on a fascinating journey through high society and the American judicial system. All of the social interactions so deftly described provide illumination into the motivations of the major characters in the novel, which fully brings to life the blazing bonfire of vanities, of so many people's vanities, in the novel's stunning finale. While the novel is set in the New York of the early to mid-1980s, I'm afraid it could easily describe the New York of today. In fact, Wolfe's New York might be a bit tame and naive by today's standards. The reading is equally brilliant. I enjoyed every minute, and I'm looking forward to reading (or listening to) another Wolfe novel soon.

The Great American Novel of the 1980s

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I really enjoyed this book. It was so tragically sad in the way it portrayed the utter worst of every group involved. I think the one line that really gripped me was "And Sherman's regal chin sunk to his chest." When a book has a line that grips my heart, it is an important book for me

great drama

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I enjoyed this book once it really got going! The characters are wonderfully done and there is such witty humor in between them and their perceptions of themselves. I find it interesting that this book is seen as an iconic 1980s novel, because I felt, reading it, like it could easily be about the present day. The excess of capitalistic Wall Street, the race tensions, the media's ravenous bad taste - it's all there!

A great work, great narrator, but very long!

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Wolfe is a master story teller. This brilliantly structured, researched and written novel bursts with believable characters who act out a socially conscious drama. Comedy and tragedy, drive a suspenseful and riveting story that at 26 hours still ends too soon. Fabulous performance. One of the most entertaining books I’ve listened to on Audible.

Wolfe- the 20th century Dickens

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