At the outset of the novel, wealthy, white Sherman McCoy and his mistress are driving in the South Bronx, where they hit Henry Lamb, a young black man, and flee the scene. The Bonfire of the Vanities is a meditation on greed, corruption, racial conflict, and self-interest told through a cast of universally-flawed characters. Inspired by the social commentary woven into the writings of Charles Dickens, Émile Zola, and William Makepeace Thackaray, he wanted a novel of “intense social realism,” which he termed the “journalistic” or “documentary” novel. His starting point was not characters or plot, but setting - New York City. Love, THE NOVEL.”īut by the 1980s, Wolfe had decided to embark upon his own novel. So much was Wolfe identified with this criticism that within his personal papers is an anonymous postcard from 1972, stating “Dear Tom: The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. They sought to inhabit the minds of their subjects and communicate this perspective through extensive dialogue and descriptions of their clothing, surroundings, and mannerisms - details that Wolfe called their “status life.” These were techniques adopted from authors of fiction, but Wolfe was dismissive of the contemporary state of the novel, at various times calling it dead, retrograde, and generally unwilling to engage with and respond to the cultural moment. Thompson, he had developed a new style of reportage - the New Journalism - that embraced a strong voice and sense of immediacy. Along with his compatriots like Gay Talese, Joan Didion, and Hunter S. Wolfe had made a name for himself with high-profile articles like “Radical Chic” and books like The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Right Stuff. When Tom Wolfe prepared to write his first novel, he had a lot to prove.

Wolfe bonfire of the vanities