![]() ![]() ![]() Not least, the 659-page Bonfire reminded readers of the awe-inspiring scale on which a novel could operate-the rich specificity it could convey, the gritty candor it could achieve, the sheer excitement it could generate. It offered a tense, gripping page-turner of a story it had a colorful, well-nigh Dickensian cast of characters and it portrayed these people’s duplicities, hypocrisies, and superficial values with wit and precision, pulling back a curtain on the complex political workings and unwritten social codes of the metropolis that was, at the time, the planet’s economic engine. ![]() Set in what Wolfe, in its opening pages, described as the “greatest city of the 20th century,” it took readers on a lively, fast-moving tour of New York City at its highest and lowest-from Wall Street brokerages, Park Avenue penthouses, and posh Manhattan bistros to the grungiest Bronx slums, courtrooms, and jails. 1 New York Times bestseller for eight weeks. To say that it was a once-in-a-decade success may be an understatement. T was 30 years ago that Tom Wolfe published his first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities. ![]()
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