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  • The Bonfire of the Vanities

The Bonfire of the Vanities Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Tom Wolfe (Author), Joe Barrett (Narrator), Blackstone Audio, Inc. (Publisher)
4.4 out of 5 stars (5,738)

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.

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  1. Listening Length
    27 hours and 29 minutes
  2. Author
    Tom Wolfe
  3. Narrator
    Joe Barrett
  4. Publication date
    December 28, 2008
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  7. ASIN
    B002CYE9GI
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length 27 hours and 29 minutes
Author Tom Wolfe
Narrator Joe Barrett
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date December 28, 2008
Publisher Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B002CYE9GI
Best Sellers Rank

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
5,738 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find this novel entertaining and excellently written, with rich characters and a humorous style. Moreover, the book is insightful and timeless, with one customer noting how its themes resonate strongly with contemporary events. However, the story receives mixed reactions, with some praising its fantastic narrative while others find the ending unbelievable. Additionally, several customers mention the book's length as a drawback.
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145 customers mention content, 128 positive, 17 negative
Customers find the book to be a perfect novel that holds their interest and is very entertaining.
Great read and very current - juxtaposes the 1% against the 99% while simultaneously exposing our cultural prejudices. Would recommend it to anyone.Read more
...I just read it again in English on my Kindle. Great book that still resonates even today. The Masters of the Universe are still among us...Read more
Good read with lots of issues and under pinned plots.Read more
...It is worth reading but I would neither directly recommend reading it or discourage anyone from reading it....Read more
35 customers mention writing quality, 33 positive, 2 negative
Customers praise the writing quality of the book, describing it as excellently written, with one customer noting its poetic style and another highlighting its sartorial detail.
...More of an examination of the characters than an actually story. Well written, but I really thought that something was going to happen!Read more
Great writing: story line, descriptions of settings, characterizations, descriptions of characters’ appearances; but best of all accents and...Read more
Thouroughly enjoyed this novel, excellent writerRead more
...It is very well written and a timely read.Read more
27 customers mention character development, 20 positive, 7 negative
Customers appreciate the rich characters in the book, with one review noting its complex structure featuring multiple protagonists.
The book was good and kept my attention to. It also had good character development. I've enjoyed many of Tom Wolfe's novels.Read more
Very deep, intricate, one of Tom Wolfe's best. Great character development and portrayal of the misconceptions in social stereotyping....Read more
I didn't particularly enjoy the book because none of the characters were likeable and the whole thing was depressing. It is written well, however.Read more
Excellent character development. The troubles described resonate with modern times.Read more
25 customers mention humor, 24 positive, 1 negative
Customers find the book humorous, describing it as a brilliant and amusing tale, with one customer noting it's a perfect satire of the melting pot.
...It's funny and written very well. It holds your attention that makes it hard to put down. I highly recommend.Read more
...Tom Wolfe is also a fantastic, hilarious, and descriptive writer. I found the book really hard to put down.Read more
With this strange and funny novel, Tom Wolfe shows that when the truth is revealed, no one winds up looking good....Read more
...fascinating, and supported by a great writing style and a wry sense of humor.Read more
21 customers mention relevance, 21 positive, 0 negative
Customers find the book insightful and relevant, with one customer noting how its themes and political elements resonate strongly with contemporary events.
Great read...funny...insightful and informative this book has a great story line and excellent ending.Read more
A classic. Brilliant language and insight.Read it for the 3rd time , this time as ebook.Read more
Well-written, descriptive and entertaining insight into a few of NYC's unique and kooky subcultures....Read more
After 30 years it still resonates -- kind of sad really. Excellent read, for "readers," not for those who like snippet type reading....Read more
20 customers mention timeless, 18 positive, 2 negative
Customers find the book timeless, with one customer noting how it captures the cultural mores of 1980s New York City.
Although this story takes place in 1980's New York, it is timeless and placeless....Read more
A classic. Brilliant language and insight.Read it for the 3rd time , this time as ebook.Read more
Classic. As relevant today as when it was published.Read more
A timeless novel that unfortunately still resonates with a modern reader in 2021. About the endless class and racial division in America....Read more
60 customers mention story, 41 positive, 19 negative
Customers have mixed opinions about the book's story, with some finding it fantastic and keeping them engaged, while others find the ending unbelievable and the plot absurd.
Little slow going but ramped up in the end! Long book, but good story that helps show culture of NYC at the time.Read more
Another great story by a great author....Read more
...(with which I have some personal familiarity) was amusing, I found the ending anticlimactic and unsatisfying....Read more
EXCELLENT STORY AND WELL WRITTENRead more
18 customers mention length, 1 positive, 17 negative
Customers find the book's length negative, describing it as quite long and slow to start.
A good read but too long!Read more
I enjoyed the book but it is quite long. I did not care for the various French and/or Latin phrases. Obviously a talented author.Read more
Little slow going but ramped up in the end! Long book, but good story that helps show culture of NYC at the time.Read more
this is a very long book and I am only about 100 pages into it I am reading it for a book club meeting in June so need to quicken my pace....Read more
GET THE AUDIOBOOK VERSION! BEST READER / VOICE ACTOR EVER!
5 out of 5 stars
GET THE AUDIOBOOK VERSION! BEST READER / VOICE ACTOR EVER!
The book is so well written I don’t want to commit on that. I just want to say the reader of the audiobook version was absolutely spectacular. WOW!!!!!
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Thomas M. Morgan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you!
    Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2012
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I read and enjoyed this book previously in the late 80's. The passing of a further twenty-five years or so have brought it some clarity. I've got to highly recommend it, although there is one flaw that SHOULD push the rating just below 5 stars. More of that later.

    Sherman McCoy has it all. He makes a million dollars a year selling bonds for a top Wall Street firm. He lives in a 14 room, one-apartment-with-servants-wing-to-a-floor building on Park Avenue enjoying picturesque park views. His devoted wife--a little older than him and not as attractive as she once was--has carved out a career as an interior designer published in Architectural Digest, and his idealized 12 year old daughter attends the toniest private school with it's own shuttle that tools up and down Park Ave. gathering golden children in the promised land. Topping it off is his mid-20's mistress who he joins for the occasional impromptu tryst in another woman's rent-controlled apartment ($333/month)that the mistress--trophy wife of a self-made Jewish gillionaire--coopts from her for $750/month.

    Sherman's (SHUHMAN, the mistress calls him through her South Carolinian accent)fantasy life begins to come unravelled when he misses a turn off to Manhattan and ends up in the Bronx one evening after picking up his paramour at Kennedy airport. He goes from missplaced to lost and stops at an on-ramp because of an abandoned tire in his path. Two black youths appear from the side and a larger one come towards him somewhat quickly. This is the point where a spoiler opportunity presents itself to me, I'll resist the temptation, but the upthrust is that one of the youths gets struck by Sherman's car and the balance of the book is devoted to the downward spiral in Sherman's life this produces.

    The only flaw in the book occurs when detectives first visit Sherman's apartment to get a look at his car as a function of their hit-and-run investigation. The struck youth went to the hospital with a wrist injury, is treated and leaves with undiagnosed head trauma that later produces a coma (ultimately fatal). He told his mother he had been hit by a Mercedes with a license plate beginning with an R and a second number with a full ascender (my words, not his) like an "I" a "P" or an "F". After a self-appointed civil rights leader/preacher looking for a fast buck produces PR that takes talk of the accident to viral extremes, the police launch their investigation that leads them to Sherman's (and 500 other) doors to examine their cars. With so many possibilities, the police are just looking to eliminate the cars with no physical damage.

    Sherman blows the interview and arouses their suspicion. His behavior is not only ridiculous and outrageous, it's also unbelievable. Here he is, a self-styled "Master of the Universe" (as a bond salesman) and he can't act cool in a not even unexpected situation? Here, the author almost lost me. I was very disappointed.

    But he had to do this to produce the rest of the action of the book, which was well drawn and monumental. The author's gift of language, or characterization, or descriptive narrative--I could go on--are beyond comparison. This is a masterful story-teller at the peak of his powers.

    For those of you that look for "messages" in better fiction, you see how revered American institutions can be prostituted and perverted by the whims of angry crowds and determined behind-the-scenes influencers. Courts aren't supposed to function like the one in the Bronx, but, in context, it seems the most natural thing in the world.

    This is not Tom Wolfe's best book, but it's better than just about anyone elses.
    25 people found this helpful
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  • Todd H
    4.0 out of 5 stars **** ½ - I Matter... Don't I?
    Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2011
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Wolfe gives us an gritty perspective of New York City in the 1980's
    when the city had reached a modern peak of wealth disparity and
    violent crime. I am fascinated by reading about the massive amounts of
    wealth being created on Wall Street alongside egos elevated to new
    heights(see Liar's Poker) happening in a place that seemed to become
    more dangerous every single year. The wealthy spent much of their
    energy thinking of new ways to insulate themselves from the "rest of
    them."

    With Bonfire, we get the opportunity to see what it would look like
    when these worlds collide in such a hostile environment - when the
    proud and lofty imaginations of several modern men are challenged by
    their circumstances. While all of main characters represent different
    social spheres, they constantly send a similar message: "I matter ...
    don't I?"

    This novel was so much fun to read, and at the same time can give you
    the opportunity to delve into the minds and hearts of men that aren't
    separated by as much as they think.

    *****___(Perfection) The highest degree of enjoyment / fulfillment I've personally experienced with reading
    ****½___(Excellent) Only lower than five stars due to falling short on any number of "subjective" categories
    ****____(Influential) A very satisfying experience and has me looking for more from this writer/genre
    ***½____(Good) Keeps me engaged but unlikely to look for more by this writer unless highly recommended
    ***_____(Average) Could take it or leave it and will not be looking for more by the same writer
    **______(Poor) Constantly asking myself, "How much worse can this get?" every few minutes
    *_______(Terrible) Belongs in the dumpster... I mean, the recycling bin
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Gabrielle
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good choice if this is your first Tom Wolfe
    Reviewed in Canada on January 9, 2024
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This was my first Tom Wolfe book and I absolutely loved it. Except for the prologue which didn't fell out of place only after finishing the book, it's easy to get into the story.

    The setting is in New York where we follow the judicial drama unfolding in Sherman McCoy's life. We dive into the deepest thoughts of several characters which gravitates from far around Sherman or around some aspect of his dramatic situation.

    What I most love about this book (and about Tom Wolfe's book in general because I am writing this review after having read another one of his, A Man in Full) is how the author brings his characters to life through such a detailed, realistic and unfiltered narration of their thoughts, reactions and every feelings. I love how some of those thoughts and feelings are simply not politically correct, yet here they are in the real world.

    I highly recommend if you like stories that follow different characters around a common storyline.
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  • effepi
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perché non ti senti in colpa se non l’hai letto?
    Reviewed in Italy on May 14, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    Avvincente come Fleming o il primo Follet, ma profodo, e ti spiega il mondo e come ci è cambiato addosso per nostra colpa
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  • James Brydon
    5.0 out of 5 stars A marvellous chronicle of 1980s New York that stills seems vibrant and current today
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I first read this novel just weeks after its initial publication in 1988 and thought it was spellbinding then. Thirty years later I think it has lost none of its power to enthral. In a lengthy introduction to this recent edition, Tom Wolfe cites William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair as one of his inspirations. Like Vanity Fair, this is quite definitely a novel without a hero, though it is knee-deep in victims.

    As with so many great novels, the basic premise is very simple. High flying Wall Street bond dealer Sherman McCoy, scion of one of New York's leading 'WASP' families and self-styled Master of the Universe, is conducting a clandestine affair with Maria, the young, sexy wife of an ageing multi-millionaire. Having told his wife that he has to work late, Sherman collects Maria from the airport but, in a moment of inattention, he finds himself stuck in the wrong lane on the freeway and ends up taking a wrong turning. Instead of heading home to Manhattan, he and Maria find themselves lost in the depths of the Bronx. As they drive around ever more frightening streets, an incident occurs, as a consequence of which a young African American boy is accidentally knocked down by their car. In their panic, they drive away, unaware of the injuries that the boy has suffered, and return to their insulated life within New York's beau monde.

    It transpires, however, that the young man, Henry Lamb, has been badly injured. Having called at hospital for treatment of a badly hurt wrist he returns home but subsequently complains of head pains, and subsides into a coma. Through the intervention of a radical activist in the African American community, aided by veteran radicals desperate to find a new cause, a crusade for justice for the stricken boy gathers pace. Gradually the foundation stones of McCoy's existence, that had previously seemed so secure, are pulled away and his enviable lifestyle starts to disintegrate.

    In the meantime, Peter Fallow, a particularly odious British journalist who had been struggling to make his way in New York, finds himself being given exclusive after exclusive as the campaigners harness the tabloid press to press their cause. Fallow is a desperate parasite with a rapidly-escalating drink problem (some of the descriptions Wolfe offers of the journalist's morning hangovers are quite astounding), but he gradually finds his fortunes waxing as McCoy's wane.

    Wolfe captures the racial tensions and jealousies with a pellucid sharpness that he also directs against the vagaries of the American criminal justice system in which, during a year when the local District Attorney has to seek re-election against an increasingly volatile political landscape, Sherman McCoy becomes the ‘Great White Defendant’, the token box-ticking target for whom every prosecutor has yearned.

    As I said at the beginning of this review, there are no heroes in this book. Everyone, except poor Henry Lamb, is seen to be tainted and self-serving to some degree. Sherman McCoy, indeed, emerges as one of the better characters. He recognises that he has, inadvertently, done something dreadful and he acknowledges the hollowness of many aspects of his life as a Master of the Universe, although ultimately he remains unable to summon the strength of spirit to opt for a different lifestyle.

    There is a Dickensian acuity of observation throughout, perhaps best exemplified in Wolfe's pillorying of the higher end of the legal profession. Top 'WASP' law firms are given names such as 'Dunning, Sponget and Leach' or 'Curry, Goad and Pesterall', reminiscent of 'Private Eye's parody firm, 'Sue, Grabbit and Runne'.

    Simply amazing!
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  • Jean L.
    5.0 out of 5 stars un très bon roman
    Reviewed in France on November 18, 2012
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    le mélange des milieux, des lieux, la description d'une amérique multiple, la maîtrise de l'écriture, le suspense, la politique... Tout y est, on y est.
    Report
  • Cliente de Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Lo mejor de Tom Wolfe
    Reviewed in Spain on June 25, 2018
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    La mejor novela de Tom Wolfe. Enormemente entretenida, supo plasmar con brillantez una determinada era y se ha asentado en el imaginario colectivo como la mas icónica representación del NY de los 80. Plagada de un puñado de personajes inolvidables y de vívidas e hilarantes descripciones de situaciones que en manos de otro escritor serian totalmente ordinarias. Eso sí, como en todas las novelas de Wolfe promete más de lo que da, y el final es un tanto atropellado.
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