“Your self…is other people, all the people you're tied to, and it's only a thread.”

High flying Wall Street bond dealer and self-styled Master of the Universe, Sherman McCoy, is conducting a clandestine affair with Maria, the sexy young wife of an ageing multi-millionaire. One evening after telling his wife that he's working late, Sherman collects Maria from the airport but, in a moment of inattention, he finds himself stuck in the wrong lane on the freeway and lost in the depths of the Bronx. As they drive around ever more frightening streets trying to find a way back to Manhattan, a young African American boy is accidentally knocked down by their car. They drive away in their panic, unaware of the injuries that the boy has suffered, and return to their insulated life within wealthy, white New York.

Sherman wants to report the incident but Maria over-rules him saying that she doesn't think that they will hear anything more about it. However, Henry Lamb, has been badly injured. Having attended hospital for treatment of a badly hurt wrist he returns home where he complains of head pains, and subsides into a coma. A radical activist in the African American community, Reverend Bacon, desperate for a crusade gets involved in the case. Bacon is determined to use Lamb's case as a cause célèbre. As demands for justice for the stricken boy gathers pace, McCoy's seemingly secure existence begins to disintegrate.

Meanwhile, Peter Fallow, a particularly odious and struggling British journalist, finds himself being given a string of exclusives about the case as the activists harness the tabloid press to forward their cause. Fallow gradually finds his fortunes waxing as McCoy's wane.

There are no heroes in this book. Everyone, except poor Henry Lamb, is seen to be tainted and self-serving to some degree. Sherman McCoy, indeed, emerges as one of the nicer characters. He at least recognises that he has, inadvertently, done something dreadful and the hollowness of his previous existence but ultimately is unable to change courses. He becomes a pitiable character incapable of choosing the correct advice to take. There are a number of other memorable characters, in particular Thomas Killian, McCoy's lawyer, and Supreme Court Justice Myron Kovitsky, all of them are flawed in some way but Wolfe only illuminates them briefly before reverting back to McCoy.

Wolfe wonderfully captures the racial tensions and jealousies between the two communities, the gilded but seemingly hollow lives of the super-wealthy but directs most of his satire against the vagaries of the American criminal justice system, where local District Attorneys and judges must seek periodic re-election against an increasingly volatile political landscape. Sherman McCoy becomes the ‘Great White Defendant’, the token box-ticking target every prosecutor yearns for.

Wolfe's writing is dazzling at times and his dialogue is fantastic. There are several funny scenes, particularly towards the end, with one in a restaurant being absolutely brilliant. All in all, I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys gripping character-driven satirical fiction but be warned the book is both long and hard to put down! ( )

Sherman McCoy es una persona de éxito. Procede de una buena familia que le quiere y le adora y tiene un gran trabajo como agente de bolsa , del que obtiene excelentes beneficios.
Cierto día, gracias a un incidente, se le complica la vida, y a partir de entonces, todos son problemas.
Excelente relato de cómo se puede pasar de la cima del éxito a estar en el fondo del averno en un simple chasquido de dedo. ( )

A true portrait of how everybody is always out for themselves. It really is a melting pot of egos, intertwining to make a believable hell hole of a plot. Great great read, ( )

El protagonista es un yuppie, un asesor financiero que se ha convertido en la estrella de una firma de brokers, pero que se ve inmerso en rocambolescas dificultades jurídicas, matrimoniales e incluso económicas a partir de la noche en que se pierde por las calles del Bronx cuando llevaba a su amante del aeropuerto Kennedy a su nido de amor.

In this book, Wolfe creates some characters that are so believable... despicable ones, mostly, that this reader got involved with them. The protagonist is a millionaire (back in the day when that was impressive) who earns his money buying and selling bonds on wall street. He is in debt over his head, because he paid more than$3 million for an apartment on Park Ave in Manhattan, which he financed with a personal loan! ( )