How a journalist's deadline-driven serial became the quintessential novel of 1980s New York City
In short: Tom Wolfe’s 1987 bestseller, The Bonfire of the Vanities, captured the racial tensions and greed of a polarized New York. Originally serialized in Rolling Stone, the novel transformed from a Dickensian experiment into a biting social satire that remains a definitive, if controversial, portrait of a decade’s ambition and collapse.
Tom Wolfe, previously known for his non-fiction, turned to the novel form to capture the essence of 1980s New York City. To overcome writer's block, he adopted the Victorian method of serial publication, writing 27 installments for Rolling Stone between July 1984 and August 1985. This pressure-filled process allowed him to refine his narrative, eventually shifting his protagonist, Sherman McCoy, from a writer to a bond trader after observing the high-stakes environment at Salomon Brothers.
The story centers on McCoy, a self-styled 'Master of the Universe' whose life unravels after a wrong turn into the Bronx leads to a hit-and-run accident. The plot weaves together the lives of a cynical journalist, Peter Fallow, and an ambitious district attorney, Abe Weiss, against a backdrop of genuine racial and cultural volatility. Wolfe drew inspiration from real-world events, including the 1982 murder of Willie Turks and the 1986 death of Michael Griffith, to ground his fiction in the city's palpable unrest.
While the book was a commercial and critical success, it was not without its detractors. Critics praised its craft but noted an 'odd aftertaste' left by its superficial characterizations. The title itself references the 1497 Florentine event where Girolamo Savonarola burned 'sinful' objects, a fitting metaphor for the moral decay Wolfe depicted. Despite a failed 1990 film adaptation, the novel’s influence persists, serving as a mirror to the era's extremes of wealth and social division.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: The Bonfire of the Vanities
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