After Tom Wolfe defined the 60s in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and the cultural U-turn at the turn of the 80s in The Right Stuff , nobody thought he could ever top himself again. In 1987, when The Bonfire of the Vanities arrived, the literati called Wolfe an aging enfant terrible. He wasnt aging; he was growing up. After Tom Wolfe defined the 60s in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and the cultural U-turn at the turn of the 80s in The Right Stuff , nobody thought he could ever top himself again. In 1987, when The Bonfire of the Vanities arrived, the literati called Wolfe an aging enfant terrible. He wasnt aging; he was growing up. Bonfire s pyrotechnic satire of 1980s New York wasnt just Wolfes best book, it was the best bestselling fiction debut of the decade, a miraculously realistic study of an unbelievably status-mad society, from the fiery combatants of the South Bronx to the bubbling scum at the top of Wall Street. Sherman McCoy, a farcically arrogant investment banker (dubbed a Master of the Universe, Wolfes brilliant metaphorical co-opting of a then-important toy for boys), hits a black guy in the Bronx with his Mercedes and runs--right into a nightmare peopled by vicious mistresses, thin wives like social x-rays, slime-bag politicos, tabloid hacks, and Dantesque denizens of the justice system. If the Coen and Marx brothers together dramatized The Great Gatsby , Wolfes Bonfire would probably be funnier. Many think his second novel, A Man in Full , is deeper, but Bonfire will never die down. You might find it interesting to compare the film The Bonfire of the Vanities , a fascinating calamity perpetrated by the geniuses Brian De Palma and Tom Hanks, with The Right Stuff , one of the very best films of the 80s. --Tim Appelo