Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe (03/10)

Wolfe's subject is male ego, that most underserved of themes in literature. Bonfire isn't subtle or lyrical, but it is magisterial, cutting, and fun. "Wolfe contra Woolf," I would title my oh-so-clever article contrasting the two in an upper-middlebrow literary publication, but really: they were born opposites. Since my thing, it seems, is literary treatments of masculinity, I obviously had to look at Wolfe, and he is good, just...simple. Wolfe's men are broad, simplistic parodies, or perhaps I would prefer to think so.

Bonfire of the Vanities is also a clear precursor to The Wire: white journalists chronicling the decay of a post-industrial, segregated city where race and class overlap, or not chronicling so much as attempting a portrait. Of course, The Wire is much bolder and more sophisticated--it actually looks into the lives of the young, black men who feed the criminal justice system. Wolfe just touches on them, looks at them through the eyes of outsiders. Probably wisely, he doesn't try to write outside the perspective of white men whose sole motivation, ever, is ego.

This book is also a scrupulous catalog of suit descriptions, which is useful right now as I get a custom suit tailored at Khan Market. Thanks, Mr. Wolfe! Posing so audaciously on the back cover, pure white, double-breasted suit with peaked lapels and black-and-white striped shirt with the narrow collar blaring out as if to say, "I am a character!" Wolfe the Southern Duke.