The Bonfire of the Vanities, by Tom Wolfe

Sometimes fiction gives a clearer view of the world than news reporting. Tom Wolfe revealed the reality that is America in his master-work, "The Bonfire of the Vanities".

Tom Wolfe has resurrected a form of fiction that was first made famous by the French Novelist, Emile Zola. Zola attempted to write novels that were a revelation of the drama inherent in the real world. Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" is indeed a novel, but its characters and characterizations are so real and so scathing as to be a report on the state of society at the time it was written, and regrettably today.

"Bonfire of the Vanities" is fast-paced, yet loaded with the kind of detail every reader wants to know. The words seem to pile up behind the reader as he flies through the book in an eye opening journey that reveals the status conscious, race conscious city of New York for the glitzy and grimy place that it is. Characters, seeing the world as a class/race struggle, allow their misconceptions, jealousies and hatreds to guide their actions as well as the course of justice. The novel is a mirror held up in the stark light of day before the face of American political interplay.

With perceptive pacing, intricate plotting, fascinating characterizations, and a revealing message, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" is one of the best novels produced in the latter half of the century. It is destined or perhaps doomed to become a classic.