Of The Vanities
Seeking the origin of the Bonfire of the Vanities, by Thomas Wolfe, one finds one possibility in Ecclesiastes (in the Old Testament): “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” The implications in the OT are that human endeavors, motivations, and goals are futile, as all are inherently based on the selfishness of the vanities. And so it follows that Wolfe’s novel, Bonfire of the Vanities, impresses upon readers the theme of egocentrism or solipsism.
The novel is set in New York City, and opens in the most disturbing of ways for what is called a “novel of manners”: Sherman McCoy, an absurdly successful Wall Street investment banker, is out on the town with his mistress, Maria Ruskin. In his Mercedes, he and Ruskin navigate their way home by missing his exit and ending up in the Bronx. In an epic turn of events, McCoy’s clandestine lover accidentally backs over a young black man, Henry Lamb, but instead of stopping takes off for the guilty safety of her turf and his Park Avenue home. The self-proclaimed “Master of the Universe,” however, now must face the unraveling of an upper crust life—submitting to arrest and court trials back in the dregs that are the Bronx.
The Bonfire of the Vanities is about class, race, and all that makes up the divide between upper and lower classes in New York in the 1980s. It is also about modern epic anti-heroes who are self-involved, self-absorbed, and surprisingly more vulnerable to real life and its terms. (For example, McCoy attempts/contemplates suicide as an out.)
The movie by the same name is equally enthralling, targeting the themes of greed and lust in Americans of the upper and middle echelons. Tom Hanks as McCoy plays the role with a stifled rich boy stoicism for anything or anyone other than himself—which explores the moneyed attitudes of those who see anything that doesn’t contribute to their success as disposable. Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin and Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow (tabloid journalist who exposes the accident in a series of outlandish spreads) join Hanks in classic filmic representation of a novel that fared better. That is, while film and literature are obviously two different media that can rarely be compared, the book again wins the attention of lovers of both forms. The movie was a flop. The book wasn’t. Goes without saying probably that this is due to the history behind the author: Tom Wolfe also gave us the best-selling Electric Koolaid Acid Test and The Right Stuff…the latter which did make smooth and successful transition to film. But if you are as big a reader as you are a movie-goer (or renter), then reading Bonfire of the Vanities will not be a waste of free time.
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