[teachrdan]

I'd immediately recommend Bonfire of the Vanities. It perfectly captures NYC in the 80s: the racial divides, the wealth inequality, and the many ways individuals cross race and class lines. And his vivid description of how bond traders make insane amounts of money (for the time) is unforgettable.

Frankly, Bonfire is worth reading just for unforgettable lines like this one: "If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested."

[wallflower]

Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" (Going broke on a million a year), p.137

"One breath of scandal, and not only would the Giscard scheme collapse but his very career would be finished! And what would he do then? I’m already going broke on a million a year! The appalling figures came popping up into his brain. Last year his income had been $980,000. But he had to pay out $21,000 a month for the $1.8 million loan he had to take out to buy the apartment... Of the $560,000 remaining of his income last year, $44,400 was required for the apartment’s monthly maintenance fee… $18,000 for heat, utilities, insurance and repairs, $6,000 for lawn and hedge cutting, $8,000 for taxes. Entertaining at home and in restaurants had come to $37,000. This was a modest sum compared to what other people spent..."

[ghaff]

Yeah. I’m honestly not sure how well a newbie read from a space of 30 years who knows Lille of eighties NYC would stand up. But, from my perspective as someone who lived briefly in 80s Manhattan, it’s his novel that really captures a time and place.

[slimshady94]

I don't remember much of Bonfire, but I definitely remember a specific paragraph in which almost every noun and verb was preceded by the adjective 'f*ing'. Very vivid yet puzzling for a young kid.