Mocking Justice

Tom Wolfe. The Bonfire of the Vanities. Bantam, 1988
0553275976 Amazon.com After Tom Wolfe defined the '60s in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and the cultural U-turn at the turn of the '80s in The Right Stuff, nobody thought he could ever top himself again. In 1987, when The Bonfire of the Vanities arrived, the literati called Wolfe an "aging enfant terrible." He wasn't aging; he was growing up. Bonfire's pyrotechnic satire of 1980s New York wasn't just Wolfe's best book, it was the best bestselling fiction debut of the decade, a miraculously realistic study of an unbelievably status-mad society, from the fiery combatants of the South Bronx to the bubbling scum at the top of Wall Street. Sherman McCoy, a farcically arrogant investment banker (dubbed a "Master of the Universe," Wolfe's brilliant metaphorical co-opting of a then-important toy for boys), hits a black guy in the Bronx with his Mercedes and runs--right into a nightmare peopled by vicious mistresses, thin wives like "social x-rays," slime-bag politicos, tabloid hacks, and Dantesque denizens of the "justice" system. If the Coen and Marx brothers together dramatized The Great Gatsby, Wolfe's Bonfire would probably be funnier. Many think his second novel, A Man in Full, is deeper, but Bonfire will never die down. You might find it interesting to compare the film The Bonfire of the Vanities, a fascinating calamity perpetrated by the geniuses Brian De Palma and Tom Hanks, with The Right Stuff, one of the very best films of the '80s. --Tim Appelo From Publishers Weekly In his spellbinding first novel, Wolfe proves that he has the right stuff to write propulsively engrossing fiction. Both his cynical irony and sense of the ridiculous are perfectly suited to his subject: the roiling, corrupt, savage, ethnic melting pot that is New York City. Ranging from the rarefied atmosphere of Park Avenue to the dingy courtrooms of the Bronx, this is a totally credible tale of how the communities uneasily coexist and what happens when they collide. On a clandestine date with his mistress one night, top Wall Street investment banker and snobbish WASP Sherman McCoy misses his turn on the thruway and gets lost in the South Bronx; his Mercedes hits and seriously injures a young black man. The incident is inflated by a manipulative black leader, a district attorney seeking reelection and a sleazy tabloid reporter into a full-blown scandal, a political football and a hokey morality play. Wolfe adroitly swings his focus from one to another of the people involved: the protagonist McCoy; Kramer, the assistant D.A.; two detectivesone Irish, the other Jewish; a slimy, alcoholic British journalist; an outraged judge, etc. He has an infallible, mocking ear for New York voices, rendering with equal precision the defense lawyer's "gedoutdahere," the deliberate bad grammar ("that don't help matters") of the wily "reverend" and the clenched-teeth WASP locution ('howjado"). His reporter's eye has seized every gritty detail of the criminal justice system, and he is also acute in rendering the hierarchy at a society party. He convincingly equates the jungles of Wall Street and the Bronx: in both places men casually use the same four-letter expletives and, no matter what their standing on the social ladder, find that power kindles their lust for nubile young women. Erupting from the first line with noise, color, tension and immediacy, this immensely entertaining novel accurately mirrors a system that has broken down: from the social code of basic good manners to the fair practices of the law. It is safe to predict that the book will stand as a brilliant evocation of New York's class, racial and political structure in the 1980s. 200,000 first printing;200,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild dual main selection; author tour. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title..

Paperback, Good

[SW: contemporary fiction, tom wolfe, new york novels, new york, social commentary,]

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Tom Wolfe. The Bonfire of the Vanities: A Novel. Picador, 2008
0312427573 From the Publisher Vintage Tom Wolfe, the #1 bestseller that will forever define late-twentieth-century New York style. "No one has portrayed New York Society this accurately and devastatingly since Edith Wharton" (The National Review) People Magazine Brillian -Bonfire illumines the modern madness that [was] New York in the 1980s with the intense precision of a laser beam. Newsweek It's the human comedy, on a skyscraper scale and at a taxi-meter pace... People Brilliant... Washington Post Book A superb human comedy and the first novel ever to get contemporary New York, in all its arrogance and shame and heterogeneity and insularity, exactly right. Philadelphia Inquirer A smash... Business Week Marvelous... New York Times Book Review A big, bitter, funny, craftily plotted book that grabs you by the lapels and won't let go. Wall Street Journal Impossible to put down... Washington Post Book World Richly entertaining... New York Times Delicious fun... Publishers Weekly In his spellbinding first novel, Wolfe proves that he has the right stuff to write propulsively engrossing fiction. Both his cynical irony and sense of the ridiculous are perfectly suited to his subject: the roiling, corrupt, savage, ethnic melting pot that is New York City. Ranging from the rarefied atmosphere of Park Avenue to the dingy courtrooms of the Bronx, this is a totally credible tale of how the communities uneasily coexist and what happens when they collide. On a clandestine date with his mistress one night, top Wall Street investment banker and snobbish WASP Sherman McCoy misses his turn on the thruway and gets lost in the South Bronx; his Mercedes hits and seriously injures a young black man. The incident is inflated by a manipulative black leader, a district attorney seeking reelection and a sleazy tabloid reporter into a full-blown scandal, a political football and a hokey morality play. Wolfe adroitly swings his focus from one to another of the people involved: the protagonist McCoy; Kramer, the assistant D.A.; two detectives one Irish, the other Jewish; a slimy, alcoholic British journalist; an outraged judge, etc. He has an infallible, mocking ear for New York voices, rendering with equal precision the defense lawyer's "gedoutdahere,'' the deliberate bad grammar ("that don't help matters'') of the wily "reverend'' and the clenched-teeth WASP locution ("howjado''). His reporter's eye has seized every gritty detail of the criminal justice system, and he is also acute in rendering the hierarchy at a society party. He convincingly equates the jungles of Wall Street and the Bronx: in both places men casually use the same four-letter expletives and, no matter what their standing on the social ladder, find that power kindles their lust for nubile young women. Erupting from the first line with noise, color, tension and immediacy, this immensely entertaining novel accurately mirrors a system that has broken down: from the social code of basic good manners to the fair practices of the law. It is safe to predict that the book will stand as a brilliant evocation of New York's class, racial and political structure in the 1980s. Michael Rogers - Library Journal Wolfe's first foray into fiction was a Goliath success, becoming a No. 1 best seller nationwide as well as morphing into a feature film (which, alas, stunk badly). It's a laugh-out-loud dark comedy in addition to being a page-turning tale of power, politics, greed, and justice. Library Journal Insulation is the key to living in New York, according to millionaire bond salesman Sherman McCoy, insulation from "them.'' So when he makes a wrong turn one night and finds himself driving through the South Bronx in his Mercedes, he panics. In his haste to get back to Manhattan he sideswipes a pedestrian; made tabloid news by a sleazy reporter, the incident has every politician in town crying for McCoy's blood. As some critics have long maintained, Wolfe's genius may be better suited to fiction than to journalism; his novel has all the knowledge, insight, and wit of earlier w.

Paperback, New

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Kettell, Thomas Prentice (editor). The United States Magazine, And Democratic Review. New Series. Volume XXIX. July-December, 1851. [Calif. gold rush, Oregon, blacks & slavery, woman suffrage plus a mocking poem, temperance, Irish immigrants, much more] N.Y., 1851.
Bd. vol. with 6 monthly issues for July-December 1851. With interesting articles on constitutional reform, continuing fiction beginning with travel aboard a steamboat for St. Louis by a supposed half-breed, 9pp. on Lamartine, the mulatto political radical in the 1848 French Revolution, laws for blacks & mulattos, political portraits by the Alabama Supreme Court justice with discussion of the Oregon Question among other things, a speech by Martin Van Buren, a speech by Senator Hunter of Virginia on recent slavery agitation, finance, commercial, & trade figures of U.S. and Europe, "The Sources And Perfection Of The American Law", California gold, news of N.Y. theatres incl. Broadway Theater, Noblo's, Bowery Theater, Italian opera at Castle Gardens, 8pp. on woman's suffrage in U.S. & France, also 7pp. on dueling, 11pp. on temperance, 10pp. on U.S. census, also Irish immigration, American literature, 9pp. on Irish poets, political sketch of Pierre Soule, new senator from Louisiana (with his views toward the Missouri Compromise & maintenance of the Union), a short poem, "Bloomer Rights" making fun of woman's suffrage, invention of a portable steam engine, varieties of the human race (with much on blacks), also an 18pp. article, "Natural History Of Man" w/ a state by state census of whites, colored & insane, 27pp. biography of Major Gen. John Wool with much on Mexican War battle details, Texas, etc., "Scripture Geology and Scripture Astronomy", repeal of the British Corn Laws, Narcisso Lopez revolt against Spanish in Cuba, Gov. Seymour of N.Y., notice of beginning of publication of Harper's Monthly, reviews of new books in each issue, much more. Engraved portraits.

572pp. 8vo. Orig. 3/4 calf. 1st edition. Spine rubbed but solid, one corner msg. leather, some light browning, a few leaves w/ heavier browning but not at all brittle. Gd.

[SW: Political historyGeneral AmericanaWestern Americana1850'sMilitary historyIndiansOregonWool, General JohnSteamboatsCastle GardensCensusSteam engineU.S. SenateAmerican SouthMissouri CompromiseLouisianaBuren, Martin vanFinances1848 RevolutionEconomicsEconomic historyMonetaryFiscalTradeGold rushTheatresOregon QuestionNew York CityTemperenceIrish AmericansIrish immigrationImmigrationOperaPoetryLiteratureEthnologyCubaCuban revoltSlavery BlacksVirginiaMexican WarTexas historyWomenSuffrageCaliforniaMexicoTexasDuelingLawU.S. ConstitutionAlabamaAbolitionistsBibleAstronomyGeologyCorn laws]

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Freeling, Nicolas: A City Solitary, New York, NY, U.S.A. Penguin 1986 ; weicher Einband / soft cover ISBN: 0140094024
0140094024 Good+

Spine somewhat creased, slightly shelf-cocked, corners slightly bumped. Slight yellowing. <p> "Three mocking, self-confident punks have vandalized the Forrestiers' home. The actual damage is minimal, but Walter Forrestier's brush with crime, and with the criminal justice system, begins to corrupt all the values he holds sacred. Forced into action, Walter sets out on a course of vengeance that will destroy everything in his path." 1st Penguin Printing Mass Market Paperback 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall; 1st Penguin Printing

[SW: Fiction Thriller France Forrestier Walter Fictitious Character]

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