The Bonfire of the Vanities: A Novel | 
Stand back, I‘m going in….
#Chunskter
"A spasm of fear reached down to the very bottom of his descending colon."
Kramer needs an extended medical leave/jackoff break. He's much too horny to be a lawyer.
"Her clavicle stuck out so far Sherman had the feeling he could reach out and pick up the two big bones. He could see lamplight through her rib cage."
"Even if it‘s for people who are shallow and vain, it‘s something *real*, something describable, something contributing to simple human satisfaction, no matter how meretricious and temporary, something you can at least explain to your children. I mean, at Pierce & Pierce, what on earth do you tell *each other* you do every day?"
""Apparently Bacon called Joseph Leonard. You know Leonard? The black assemblyman?" Kramer‘s radar told him that *black* was too delicate, too refined, too trendy-liberal a designation for a conversation with Martin and Goldberg, but he didn‘t want to try out anything else."
"He found the dial tone soothing. He wished he could crawl inside the receiver and float on his back in the dial tone and let the hum of it wash over his nerve endings."
"A numb dull clattering—thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk thuk—rose from the keyboards, as if an immense mah-jongg tournament was in progress."
I love awful couples who deserve each other.
""Vulgar, but not as vulgar as Louis Vuitton," thought Sherman."
"He tensed his sternocleidomastoid muscles to make his neck fan out like a wrestler's."
"He was only forty, but had looked fifty for the past twenty years." ?
pickA wild ride. It‘s not very often that a cast of so many awful characters is so enjoyable. A satire of schemes and ulterior motives as each character attempts to wield a horrible accident to their own advantage, but the joke is on them. 8/10
pickWhen Sherman McCoy keeps calling himself Master of the Universe & with the incredible amount of !!!!!, wasn‘t sure I could take it.It‘s the greed is good 80s & Sherman takes a wrong turn in the Bronx, hits a young man w/ his car.The decisions he makes ,will change his life forever.It is a crafted study of good , bad, & ulterior motives across class,race, & ethnicity .A bit evil & darkly humorous .⬇️ #doublespin
Ok , I am going to finish the night reading tagged book , but a baseball break and a cosmopolitan seemed like the right thing to do. 🍸⚾️
Going old school for today‘s prompt! Also it is still in the 90s here so there will be no bonfires tonight. #FallisBooked #Bonfire
pickHilarious, biting satire that skewers race, class, and society as a whole. Very much a sendup of 1980s New York City, the themes are equally as touchy and poignant in 2019.
I already reviewed this book. Just wanted to list my favorite 10 authors (as of 4/19).
Tom Wolfe, Pat Conroy, Joy Fielding, Lionel Shriver, Daniel Silva, Mariam Keyes, Wally Lamb, Ed McBain aka Evan Hunter, Alexander McCall Smith...honorable mention: Sophie Kinsella
#moneycitymaniacs
#timbittunes
I haven‘t read this yet, it‘s on my TBR shelf. As the blurb says, it‘s ‘a caustic satire on the money-feverish Eighties‘
And yes we do have the fire on! Despite record-breaking day time temperatures it‘s still freezing overnight...
pickGreat NY book, got caught up in the hubris of it all. A bit too long and rambling at times but that all just added to the chaotic feel. Memorable characters, funny, scathing and honest.
My book club selected this read...which I started with the best of intentions last night. Since my eyes closed on me, I‘m only 68 pages in, but to be honest, I don‘t know what to make if it yet—which is perfectly fine. So, onward and forward I go, deeper into the vault that contains this story‘s plot...
pickThis was my first Tom Wolfe book. I‘d seen the abysmal movie adaptation in high school and never thought of it again. And then I ran into the book at our Friends of the Library sale. So glad I gave it another go. Really great satire of 80‘s materialism. I‘d love to see someone give this another go as a series.
pickThis is my favorite novel. I don't know how Tom Wolfe did it, but when you read this book you feel like you're in the car, in the courtroom, hearing the crowds shouting. There even is an expression "A Bonfire of the Vanities experience." I had this experience -it's when you (like the main character) are driving in heavy NY traffic and there are @6 exits ahead. The wrong choice could lead you to a sketchy, deserted neighborhood.
“Tom Wolfe, a great artist, got dressed in a suit and tie to write at his typewriter everyday. He wrote as he dressed, with style and precision in equal measure. He was, to use his own phrase, radical chic. Tom Wolfe was 88 years old.” —Brian Williams
Rest In Peace. #TomWolfe
pickI never would have read this if it wasn‘t a book club pick, but I ended up loving it! Moral ambiguities abound: power hungry prosecutors, profit driven media, self serving civil rights activists, and entitled aristocrats are all telling versions of the truth about a fatal hit and run in the Bronx, but it is all so, so murky, and therefore compelling. Even with some dated references, it is as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1987.
This isn't exactly a talent of mine but I've given it a go! #spinepoetry
#Riotgrams
The rest of my Thrift Books haul arrived today. I‘m much happier with the condition of these, although the sticker ripped the spine of one of my books. 😩 I can get over that though. Now I just have to make room for these on my challenge shelf! #bookhaul
so-soTowards the middle, after the accident, I started to get interested and towards the end I can't put the book down. The book is really interesting just started a bit slow for me. If you're going to read it make sure to know or research Wall Street and lawyer terms/words to make reading easy for you.
I sorted through a ton of papers from my childhood and teenage years today and ditched almost everything. Some of the stuff exists in digital form, some of it's been copied into my current journal, and some of it was too terrible even to recycle. I roasted marshmallows to celebrate letting it all go.
I DID find my first comics script, though, along with a short story that complements it, and I think there may be something to it. So that's good.
I read this novel #PublishedInThe1980s for a literature of NYC class during my undergrad. While some of the absurd situations were hilarious, I wasn't the biggest fan of it. I will say this, it felt like The Great Gatsby of the 1980s, perfectly capturing the feel of the decade while it was still going on. #JuneBookBugs
pan#marchintoreading #didntlikeitstillfinishedit at some point I thought, well, maybe the book will be better...NOPE.
Book, cake, tea... and a notebook, that's a good afternoon ! #vendredilecture
What I'm currently reading.... or rereading for Furiously Happy. #vendredilecture
pickPublished at the height of 80s glitz and excess, Bonfire is very much a product of it's time. Still, its scathing and merciless exploration of greed, fame, power, class and race remain as relevant today as during the Regan era. Though certainly not without its blind spots, Bonfire is a highly enjoyable read for mild misanthropes and those who appreciate top notch writing chops. Highly quotable! #LitsyAtoZ #bookclubbing
