Audible Changed My Life. The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Audible Changed My Life.
Reviews, Conversations and Insights. And You are Invited.
This series of audiobook reviews is based on my reading over the past seven years during my one-hundred-mile daily commute. Audible changed my life.
With a personality that generally considers being early as being inefficient, my commute is usually a race against the estimated arrival time. Set Waze to Work and game on. Yet when listening to audiobooks my commute takes on a whole different tone. My ride is calm, almost leisurely because of the enjoyment of reading. There have been times when I missed my exit listening to a good read! The Audible version of The Bonfire of the Vanities just might have been responsible for at least one of these exit snafus.
The statistics presented with each review are provided by Audible.
The Bonfire of the Vanities
By: Tom Wolfe
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
Length: 27 hrs and 28 mins
Published 2001
Release date: 06-11-09
Current Audible Rating at Time of Review 4 out of 5 stars with 2,780 ratings
So you saw the movie and now you are ready to move on without a second thought. Stop! The Audible version of The Bonfire of the Vanities cannot be compared to its dismal movie adaption. Narrated by Joe Barrett, a fitting Audible narrator, this audiobook had me locked up. No need for a hard copy at hand nor an e-book to satisfy my moods on this read. Tom Wolfe originally drafted this writing as a modern serial for Rolling Stone magazine in 1984. Ripe with racism and sexism this book may be considered politically incorrect today. Revealing the social tensions of New York City during the 1980s including its stereotypes, one minute I was laughing aloud and the next minute contemplating the evil of humankind. Hubris. Greed. Reality. Envy. Conceit. This book is sad yet funny, social satire at its best. The narrator emphasizes the ethnic melting pot accents of the City to raise the humor to the top. Yet younger readers be prepared — this book was published prior to cell phones and the Internet, in a time before New York City was significantly re-gentrified and a wrong exit taken could change the course of one’s life.
Noteworthy Quote:
“Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life.”
Audible Changed My Life is a continuing series. More book reviews, and more about audiobooks and “me,” to follow. Feel free to jump into the conversation!
