Review of The Bonfire of the Vanities

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The Bonfire of the Vanities
Tom Wolfe
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What Does The Score "3.5" Mean? Solid: Above the bar. Good parts greatly outweigh any shortcomings. I'm glad to have read it once.

I've read magazine pieces by Tom Wolfe, but this is the first novel of his that I've read. Wolfe's strongest skill is capturing the every-which-way rush of ideas that the average person experiences in unsure and stressful situations. He does this with a signature style in which descriptive prose is constantly being broken up by characters' reactions and inner monologues. He's also good at writing odious characters, and at simmering both the characters' anxieties and the reader's expectations. On the other hand, his verbose style can come off cutesy, flat, and artificial once I've spent enough time trekking through it.

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