During the 1980s, few novels were as widely read or praised as The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), a witty examination of contemporary American culture by Tom Wolfe (1931–). First published in serialized form in Rolling Stone (see entry under 1960s—Print Culture in volume 4) magazine, the novel explores many social levels through the experiences of bond salesman Sherman McCoy. McCoy sees himself as a "master of the universe" due to the millions of dollars he is able to manipulate. In a nightmarish scene, McCoy and his mistress become lost in the South Bronx, where they are confronted by the poor, minorities, and the underclass—groups McCoy's fortune allowed him to avoid. For more than six hundred pages, Wolfe examines the fallout of McCoy being implicated in the hit-andrun traffic death of a young black boy. The novel spent many weeks on...