At first the sheer size of this novelput me off, however I started to read it and was immediately pulled into the world of Sherman McCoy, Thomas Killan, and Larry Kramer.
Centered around the boomtime of the 80s, this novel explores how a seemingly perfect existence, where a person wants for nothing, and can seem to do nothing wrong, can be brought down around their heads by a freak occurrence. And perhaps the same still applies today, if you play a game of “risk”, be prepared to lose everything!
I thought Tom Wolfe’s descriptions were brilliant.
A rear door opened, and a Greek wearing a white uniform came staggering in carrying a prodigious tray full of coffee and soda containers, boxes of doughnuts, cheese Danishes, onion rolls, crullers, every variety of muck and lard known to the takeout food business, and half the room deserted the computer consoles and descended upon him, rooting about the tray like starving weevils.
This attention to detail with description is present throughout the novel, and makes the reader feel as if they are present. A huge book to read, but well worth it.
