The Bonfire of the Vanities

Tom Wolfe's satirical novel of 1980s New York — a bond trader's accidental involvement in a Bronx hit-and-run reveals the interconnected worlds of Wall Street, journalism, politics, and race.

The sociology of status in late 20th-century America: Wolfe applies his New Journalism technique to the novel. Sherman McCoy's fall as a comprehensive tour of New York's social layers: Wall Street hubris, tabloid media, Bronx poverty, political opportunism. The 'masters of the universe': Wolfe's phrase for the bond traders whose self-importance he skewers. One of the great social-satirical novels of the 20th century.