'Bonfire of the Vanities' by Tom Wolfe

I've started to read Tom Wolfe's 'Bonfire of the Vanities' many times (I've had a hardcover copy for years), but couldn't complete the task- or even get more than 50 pages into it. After finding a tattered copy here, I decided that now is the time to make it happen, and I did. I can see now why it was perhaps the biggest novel of the 1980's. It screams all of the 80's themes of greed, hidden agendas, racism and social justice. Reading it some 20 years later, it was a bit dated (especially the descriptions of New York City), but still interesting. It may have been THE book in its time, but in my opinion, its time has passed.