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Lädt ... The Bonfire of the Vanities (Original 1987; 2008. Auflage)von Tom Wolfe (Autor)
Werk-InformationenFegefeuer der Eitelkeiten von Tom Wolfe (1987)
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So regularly is Tom Wolfe's brash 1987 tome described as "the quintessential novel of the 80s" that you almost feel the phrase could be slapped on as a subtitle. But the ability to "capture the decade" isn't the only measure of a writer's ability, and like a hot-pink puffball dress, this story displays a blithe disregard for nuance. Sherman McCoy, known to himself as a "Master of the Universe", is a millionaire bond trader at Wall Street's Pierce and Pierce, where the roar of the trading floor "resonate[s] with his very gizzard". His mastery is punctured, however, when, with his mistress at the wheel, his Mercedes hits and fatally injures a young black man in the Bronx. The story of McCoy's subsequent downfall is told alongside those of three other men, all characterised by their raging ambition and vanity: an alcoholic tabloid journalist desperate for a scoop; a power-hungry pastor; and a district attorney keen to impress one of his former jury members, the brown-lipsticked Miss Shelly Thomas. Wolfe revels in the rambunctious, seething world of 80s New York and brings to life in primary-colours prose a city fraught with racial tensions and steeped in ego. The contrasting worlds of McCoy and his victim, Henry Lamb, are vividly dramatised, if not with great subtlety: rich, white Park Avenue versus poor, black Bronx. At one particularly extravagant party, McCoy strays into a room described as "stuffed… with sofas, cushions, fat chairs and hassocks, all of them braided, tasselled, banded, bordered and... stuffed". Sometimes this big beast of a novel feels the same: dense with research and bulging with bombast. Yet, it has to be admitted, it's also great fun. The best account of the 90s me-first greed and fuck you attitude I have ever read. The Nazi and fascist movements in Europe subscribed to similar sentiments. But, because Wolfe does not use anti-Semitic or racist epithets, the truly reactionary character of his societal vision is often unrecognized. The movie actually performs one important public service. By turning the book into a ghastly movie, the reactionary character of the book becomes far more apparent for all to see. Sheer entertainment against a fabulous background, proving that late-blooming first-novelist Wolfe, a superobserver of the social scene (The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers), has the right stuff for fiction. Undertaken as a serial for Rolling Stone, his magnum opus hits the ball far, far, far out of the park. Son of Park Avenue wealth, Sherman McCoy at 35 is perhaps the greatest bond salesman on Wall Street, and eats only the upper crust. But millionaire Sherman's constant inner cry is that he is "hemorrhaging money." He's also a jerk, ripe for humiliation; and when his humiliation arrives, it is fearsome. Since this is also the story of The Law as it applies to rich and poor, especially to blacks and Hispanics of the Bronx, Wolfe has a field day familiarizing the reader with the politics and legal machinations that take place in the Bronx County Courthouse, a fortress wherein Sherman McCoy becomes known as the Great White Defendant. One evening, married Sherman picks up his $100-million mistress Maria at Kennedy Airport, gets lost bringing her back in his $48,000 Mercedes- Benz, is attacked by two blacks on a ramp in the Bronx. When Maria jumps behind the wheel, one black is hit by the car. Later, he lapses into a terminal coma, but not before giving his mother part of Sherman's license plate. This event is hyped absurdly by an alcoholic British reporter for the The City Light (read: Rupert Murdoch's New York Post), the mugger becomes an "honor student," and Sherman becomes the object of vile racist attacks mounted by a charlatan black minister. Chunk by chunk, Sherman loses every footing in his life but gains his manhood. Meanwhile, Wolfe triumphantly mounts scene after magnificent scene depicting the vanity of human endeavor, with every character measured by his shoes and suits or dresses, his income and expenses, and with his vain desires rising in smoke against settings that would make a Hollywood director's tongue hang out. Often hilarious, and much, much more. There has probably never been a less prescient journo-novel than The Bonfire of the Vanities, which subliminally heralded a New York that was given over to wild and feral African politics at one end (reading from north to south of Manhattan Island) and dubious market strategies at the other. The market strategies continue. Indeed, Wall Street has almost deposed the opinion polls as the index of national wellbeing. The ethnic spoils system, meanwhile, is manipulated by the same class as ever. If either of these elements ever undergoes a dramatic metamorphosis, it won’t be Tom Wolfe who sounds the alarm. Gehört zu VerlagsreihenIst enthalten inBeinhaltetBearbeitet/umgesetzt inIst gekürzt inAuszeichnungenPrestigeträchtige AuswahlenBemerkenswerte Listen
Shermann McCoy, ein unbekannter New Yorker Finanzhai kommt wegen Unfallflucht vor Gericht. Zwischen Wall Street und dem politischen Dschungel der Bronx geraten die Fronten in Bewegung. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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Was mir durch das Buch erst so richtig aufgegangen ist: Ich selbst habe die Siebziger nicht bewusst politisch erlebt und bin erst in den 1980ern erwachsen geworden. Daher war diese gesellschaftspolitische Atmosphäre des Konservativismus und des Geldrauschs sozusagen das erste, das ich kannte und ich fand es natürlich furchtbar. Dass da gerade erst vorher die 1970er waren und diese Zeit eine Wende darstellte, ist mir erst durch das Buch richtig klar geworden.
Das Buch ist vielleicht etwas zu lang, aber temporeich und witzig geschrieben. Obwohl: So witzig ist es vielleicht gar nicht, denn man kann sich wahre Hintergründe ganz gut vorstellen. ( )