![]() ![]() When he writes about process he knows what he is writing about, whether it's the Wall Street bond market, the Bronx District Attorney's Office, print and television journal-ism, or the working habits of sleazy lawyers -the man knows how to prepare and he knows how to research. I read ''The Bonfire of the Vanities'' straight through, in two sessions on two consecutive days, and enjoyed it enormously. ![]() What is amazing is that he gets away with it. Wolfe's strategy is to somehow batter the reader into submission, using an incantatory repetition of certain emblematic phrases, (HIS FIRST NOVEL!), detailed description of people's clothing, hyperbole, interior monologue whenever he feels like it, and various other New Journalism devices he is apparently too fond of to give up. ![]() As in much of his other work, such as ''The Right Stuff,'' Mr. Now comes Tom Wolfe, aging enfant terrible, with his first novel, (his first novel!), six hundred and fifty-nine pages of raw energy about New York City and various of its inhabitants - a big, bitter, funny, craftily plotted book that grabs you by the lapels and won't let go. ![]()
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