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A blog by someone who doesn't like or understand blogs.
A major theme of this blog is the love affair between the blogger and the city of New York.
Email me at david [at] danzig [dot] com.
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Monday, October 07, 2002
BOOK REVIEW: THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES (1987) * * * (3 stars out of 4).
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This Tom Wolfe book suffers from being a little longer than it needs to be. Written just before the rise of the P.C. movement, it raises some very interesting and difficult questions about race which today seem in some ways very sophisticated, but in other ways very very naive. I guess my main problem is that these questions ultimately go unanswered, and even largely unexplored. Also, I found the ending rather unsatisfying. All along, I felt like the story was leading somewhere, but then, in the end, very little was ever resolved. I'm not saying the ending was too happy or that it wasn't happy enough. I'm just saying that the ending wasn't satisfying enough, and didn't feel like an ending at all.
Having said all that, though, it was a page turner, with moments of real drama and humor, as the protagonist proves Murphy's Law again and again. Often, reading the book feels a lot like watching the show Curb Your Enthusiasm, as I was twisted up in knots watching the protagonist suffer.
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2002/10/book-review-bonfire-of-vanities-1987-3.html
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