Is Bonfire of the Vanities an entertaining read?

I should mention I tried to read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test but it was fucking exhausting.

I enjoyed it a lot, first in installments in 'Rolling Stone' magazine, then the book. I'm glad I didn't see the movie first, because that would have ruined the book since the main actors cast were all wrong.

It’s worth reading. As is A Man in Full.

Very entertaining read but the book falls apart at the end. Wolfe's novels all have that issue; some of them -- like I Am Charlotte Simmons -- have many others, too.

Read the book, skip the disaster of a movie, but read the book about the making of the disaster of a movie, "The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood."

It’s a great read. Stay away from the film version

I actually really love I Am Charlotte Simmons, faults and all.

I thought the movie had some good bits, and overall was not a complete disaster.

It's a piece of shit written by a racist southern conservative who thinks he is above it all - wall streeters, blacks and especially LIBERALS.

I really enjoyed it. I remember when it was serialized in Rolling Stone but it didn’t seem to take off like they had hoped.

[Quote] but read the book about the making of the disaster of a movie, "The Devil's Candy: The Bonfire of the Vanities Goes to Hollywood."

I did! Great book.

R8 that’s one of the things I was worried about — whether Wolfe’d deep conservatism harshes the read. But you’re the only person to bring up that criticism so for most it didn’t?

^^^ Wolfe’s

"Entertaining read" is the perfect description of this book.

Shummun sez, "Skip the film.

I enjoyed it very much and did not feel that it was infused with conservatism.

It's breezy and often diverting, quite smart and funny at times. It's problem is that the book is 690 pages and could have been very better at 290 pages. The courtroom drama is a necessary part, but that was where it wound way too long and out of his depth, the spark of momentum was gone (replaced by nothing better.)

I am re-reading BOTV on the beach this summer, then come "The Devils Candy"

Bonfire is an entertaining read; I never took the book seriously. I knew so many Wall Street people like them in the 80s.

To R1, agree with the Electric Kool-Aid Book, it was fucking exhausting. I believe I threw it in the firepit years ago. I didn't like it-it burned well though.

It's a good, fun read, OP. Avoid the movie.

Smart and funny. Read it.

I ADORED it! Wolfe put those uppity UES bitches in their place. Social x-rays!

Ok you bitches have convinced me. As soon as I’m done with the Kellow book on Sue Mengers, I’ll jump on the “Bonfire.”

Well, it's no "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby" but it is very good.

I read it last year and wasn't impressed. It's not as witty and insightful as it thinks it is. The ending felt very rushed and thrown together.

I read it long ago. It was a grind. There wasn’t a single pleasant character and reading about awful people page after page was depressing. Never wanted to see the movie but I could tell it was hilariously miscast.

I also read Electric Kool-aid and Tangerine Flake (do not remember a single thing about that one). But The Right Stuff? That book I remember vividly and of course the movie was really well done. I still have the book because it was so much better than his other ones.

I concur with the prevailing opinion: a very entertaining and quick read. The 700 pages go by fast.

And yes about EKAT. I don't think the pranksters had left the California desert before I put it down.

I tried to read it several times after it came out. Couldn’t get into it…and I wanted to.

very 80s and very entertaining

I read it once, many years ago. I don't even remember the plot. I never had an urge to read it again. Never saw the movie either.

That is all.

It was a book that everyone was reading at the time, too. The movie was horribly cast—while reading the book I pictured Michael Douglas in the lead role. Tom Hanks was a terrible choice.

William Hurt should have played the lead!

Loved it when I read it back in the day but it does fizzle out by the end as the upthread poster said. Same with A Man in Full which I loved even more (until the end).