The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), a Novel by Tom Wolfe: Summary

"To understand all is to forgive all."  The French saying. 

Tom Wolfe is an American author and a former journalist. He grew up in Richmond, Virginia and received doctorate in American Studies from Yale University. Of course, the book is smart one in every level – character, scene, and plot. The author writes some non fiction books, and The Bonfire of the Vanities is his first novel and also his eleventh book. He began his career in New York as a reporter at the Herald Tribune in 1962. Author kept the story moving rapidly with naturally and freely dialogue and well description on restaurant and fancy stuff. The story of a top Wall Streeter man named Sherman McCoy was on a bizarre incident in Bronx who drives the story into the center of every racial, economic, social, and political in the late twentieth century in New York. It was in movie and starring by Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, and Melanie Griffith in 1990. The 690-page book was published by Bantam Books in 1990 and the original edition was 1987.

The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), a Novel by Tom Wolfe

On Prologue: A riot scene at Harlem, a crowd black people rose up. The angry Blacks called him as the mayor of White New York. Someone threw a bottle at him, the mayor of the greatest city on earth- New York. They hoped Italians and Irish would watch it on TV.

The Master of Universe stood by telephoned, breathing rapidly, and concentrated. He was reassured that it was Maria’s voice with her Southern accent. When Sherman reached her apartment, the black youth suddenly made a ninety- degree turn and cut straight across the street the sidewalk on the other side. The streetlight reflected for instant on his face as he checked Sherman out. His wife Judy caught he just called someone named Maria. Judy suspected Maria was his little hooker but Sherman denied it. Technically, he had been unfaithful to his wife- but try to remain monogamous. As the daughter of a Midwestern history professor- a Midwestern history professor, Judy, acted as if she was an intellectual aristocrat – but she hadn’t minded using his money and his family to get this new social crowd of hers and started decorating business.

The investment-banking firm of Pierce & Pierce occupied four floors of a glass tower that rose up sixty stories from out the gloomy groin of Wall Street and the bond trading room where Sherman worked. He considered himself as part of the new era and the new breed, a Wall Street egalitarian, a Master of Universe who was respecter only of performance. No longer did Wall Street Pierce & Pierce mean Protestant good family. There were plenty of prominent Jewish investment bankers and plenty of Irishmen, Greeks, and Slavs. The fact that not one of the eighty members of the bond department was black or female didn’t bother him.

He felt buoyant but he couldn’t explain it. Sherman had the best school, the best girls, the best families, and the best section of the capital of the Western world in the late twentieth century- but the only part that stuck in his mind was the sensation of Campbell’s little hand holding his. The touch of his daughter’s trusting. Sherman liked to have his fatherhood observed. He was serious individual, representing Park Avenue and Wall Street. He couldn’t imagine his life if he and Judy broke up. He couldn’t imagine the weekend visitation rights with his own daughter.

He called Judy to say he would be working late but he took a black Mercedes and headed for international arrivals area. Three youths stood beneath a streetlight; three dark faces. Something was blocking the road, some kind of containers,- trash can, bodies on the road. Two young black men came up to the sport car. Sherman thought he was set up. They stared at the Mercedes two young black men. Two niggers tried to kill them in the Bronx and the car hit the boy. Both of them were afraid. Mr. Sherman McCoy of Park Avenue had a little ride with Mrs. Arthur Ruskin on Fifth Avenue in the middle of the night – two boys had tried to rob them and they blocked the roadway. She hit the boy but they wouldn’t report it to police.

As an assistant district attorney in the Bronx, Lawrence Kramer, occupied some uncertain position in the middle and he made $36,000 a year. His father used to talk a lot about the old Bronx – golden Jewish hills, a Jewish dream, of the new land of Canaan. But today, the Bronx, the Promised Land, was 70 percent Black and Puerto Rican. The poor sad Jew, Larry, entered law school when he was twenty-two. His father migrated from the Bronx the Bronx to Oceanside, Long Island but still trundled back and forth everyday to a paper-cartoon warehouse in the West Twenties, in Manhattan. Kramer would be a lawyer – the cosmopolitan but now ten years later he lived in ant colony that made the old three-bedroom apartment took train to work everyday to the Bronx. He immediately regretted thinking of the girl with brown lipstick, his Rhoda had given birth him a son just three weeks before. Both he and his wife Rhoda had started wearing bathrobes since the English baby nurse had come into their lives. Since the baby nurse had arrived, Kramer also became acutely aware of the way his wife talked. He had never noticed it before. Rhoda was a graduate of New York University and for past four years she had been an editor at publisher. She was intellectual, or at least she seemed to be reading a lot of the poetry when he first met her.

A Jew in the Homicide Bureau was rare thing. The Homicide Bureau was the elite corps of the District Attorney’s Office, the D.A.’s Marines, because homicide the most serious of all crimes. An assistant D.A in Homicide had to able to go out on the street to the crime scenes at all hours, night and day. For fifty years, maybe longer, Homicide had been an Irish enclave, although recently the Italians had made their way into it. The Irish had given Homicide their stamp and they were stone courageous.

Bronx District Attorney Abe Weiss has an election coming up, he was a Jewish was running up of election in a country that’s 70 percent black and Puerto Rican. Reverend Bacon called Joseph Leonard, a black assemblyman. Leonard had a piece of work and wanted a favor that Weiss would do him a favor. He needed black support. A woman who used to work for Bacon claimed information about what happened her son, but she had a whole bunch of parking tickets, there was a scofflaw warrant out for her, and she was afraid to go to police. Weiss quashed the warrant. An article described Bacon as a street socialist, a black political activist who had arrived at his own theories about he shackles of capitalism and the strategies required to give black people their due.

At the top page The City Light was headline saying honor students mom hit and run. Henry was the victim of hit and run. His mother Annie Lamb, a clerk at the city Marriage Bureau, said her son Henry Lamb, 18 due to graduate with honor from high school next week and gave her part of license number of the car before he slipped into coma.  Henry and his mother lived in Edgar Allan Towers, a Bronx housing project. Described by neighbors and teachers as an exemplary young man, he was slated to enter college in the fall. The teacher class Zane J. Rifkind told The City Light that was a tragic situation. Henry was among that remarkable fraction of students who are overcome the many obstacles that life in South Bronx places in their path and concentrated on their studies and their potential and their future.

Mrs. Lamb said her son left their apartment early evening, apparently to buy food. While crossing the street, he was struck by a Mercedes-Benz carrying a man and a woman, both white. Lamb managed to make his way to hospital, where he treated for broken wrist and released. The next morning he fell unconscious in the emergency room. Bronx District Attorney’s spokesman said detectives and assistant district attorney had interviewed Mrs. Lamb and did investigation on 2,500 Mercedes that were registered in New York State and license plate with the letter provided by Mrs. Lamb was almost 500. Kramer and the two detectives, Martin and Goldberg arrived at Edgar Allan Poe Towers where the unemployment rate was at least 75 percent. They were there thirty minutes before the demonstration protesting the shortcomings of White Justice. Now, it was not only about Henry Lamb but capitalism, racism, legalized murder, hit and run. Demonstrators brought the signs and banners.

The next day, The City Light’s Peter Fallow broke the tragic story of Henry Lamb. Sherman was rocked and he called Freddy Burton, his father’s lawyer. But Freddy named Tommy Killian, a Yale man, a rookie. Kramer and his team interviewed Sherman for his Mercedes-Benz. Ronald Auburn was walking down street with Lamb. He wanted to show Lamb how to take off cars and to let him know what a faggot he was in the first place. Lamb didn’t part of it. Roland threw a tire or a can in front of the car and it turned out to be McCoy. Lamb was just standing there and scared about running. Ronald only heard the white woman said “shuhmun,” it was the black Mercedes. The picture of McCoy was on the paper and TV and the letter Wall Street Socialite nabbed in hit and run.

The City Light was really going wild and the headline: seek the foxy brunette mystery girl. With the handcuffs on, he was in pen only four hours. The picture was the one from the social magazine, the one Ronald Auburn pointed to Sherman. A Wall Street investment banker Sherman McCoy’s $50.000 Mercedes-Benz sport struck honor student Henry Lamb. McCoy lived in a $3 million, 14-room, and two- story apartment on Park Avenue. Lamb was in a$247-a-month three-room apartment in a housing project in the South Bronx. Weiss loved that news and ordered Kramer to raise McCoy’s bail from $10.000 to $250.000 after they had struck a deal at $10.000 with Sherman’s lawyer, Killian. The Master of Universe went on about the television news and newspapers stories, his problems at the office, about Thomas Killian. He admitted to his father and his wife. Even Campbell’s friend from school said that Sherman hit a boy with car and hurt him bad. Campbell thought his father would be in news paper and would be in history.

Killian concluded Maria did trick with him. She didn’t go to Italy and a man she’d been involved. It was brunette girl named Maria Teresa Ruskin, wife of millionaire Arthur Ruskin, seventy-one Jew. Mrs. Ruskin was paying $750 a month under table to the actual leaseholder Germaine Boll, who then paid the $331 controlled rent. Rent controlled love nest, $331 a month. Love nest, the place he met Sherman.

A year later the articles on papers broke the news about former Wall Street financier McCoy. Sherman was brought in handcuffs to the Bronx and arraigned on a charge of manslaughter in the death of Hendry Lamb, a 19-year-old black honor student who had been the pride of a South Bronx housing project. Lamb died as a result of cerebral injured suffered when he was struck by Mr. McCoy’s Mercedes-Bens sport car thirteen months ago and never regained consciousness. Asked by reporters to comment on the contrast between his background and his currently situation, McCoy yelled out he had nothing to do with Wall Street and Park Avenue but he was a professional defendant and undergone a year of legal harassment. He insisted on representing himself at the arraignment and during his trial.

Sources said he spent $8 million for a year of extraordinary legal expenses. Formerly the owner of a $3 million apartment at Par Avenue, he now rented two modest rooms in postwar high-rise building. McCoy’s trial ended in a hung jury, with all three jurors and one Hispanic juror holding out the acquittal. Peter Fallow won Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of McCoy’s case. Thomas Killian was no longer able to represent McCoy since McCoy’s lack of sufficient funds to mount a defense. Killian currently had his hands full with a barrage of lawsuits brought by his new neighbors in the fashionable community.

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May 27, 2016

Sekapur Sirih

Penulis Tom Wolfe adalah penulis berkebangsaan Amerika yang lahir dan besar di Richmond, Virginia, Amerika Serikat. Setelah menulis sepuluh buku non fiksi, dia menulis the Bonfire of the Vanities sebagai novel pertamanya. Sebuah novel yang berkisah tentang seorang pialang atau penjual saham top, Sherman McCoy, tersudut dalam sebuah insiden dan memaksanya terperangkap dalam isu rasial, ekonomi, seks, dan sentiment politik pada akhir abad dua puluh di kota New York. Dituturkan dalam bahasa ringan dan percakapan bebas sehingga mudah dipahami. 

Pada halaman 562, saat millioner Arthur Ruskin diwawancarai dia dikawal bodyguard asal Indonesia. Wajah Ruskin dan reporter Fallow yang tengah berada di sebuah restauran mewah tentu saja tidak mungkin menyaingi perhatian dan sanjungan hormat pengunjung restaurant pada istri diktator Indonesia. Sebuah kritik sosial dari penulis untuk penguasa negara dunia ke tiga, atas kemunafikannya;  mereka kerap memfoya-foyakan dan bermewah-mewah dengan uang rakyat di negeri-negeri kaya tapi menjual kesederhanaan ketika menyapa rakyatnya. Karya ini sangat kaya akan istilah dan kata benda yang berbau fashion, pesta, dan hal yang mewah lainnya. Novel yang pertama kali diterbitkan pada tahun 1987 dan buku ini merupakan edisi tahun 1990.

Terjemahan dalam Bahasa Indonesia: The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), Karya Tom Wolfe 

Demonstrasi besar-besaran diikuti kerusuhan terjadi di Harlem, New York dan menjadi pusat pemberitaan koran maupun televisi. Komunitas kulit hitam berdemo dan seseorang dari mereka telah melempar sang walikota dengan botol. Lelaki berusia tiga puluh delapan, Sherman McCoy terlihat tidak tenang ketika menelpon seorang perempuan. Ketika dipergoki istrinya Judy dia hanyalah mengelak. Maria Ruskin wanita muda berdarah Italia, istri dari milioner Arthur Ruskin seorang Yahudi tua berumur tujuh puluh satu tahun yang tinggal tidak jauh dari apartmen Sherman McCoy. Lelaki yang selalu dalam balutan merk dan kemewahan. Seorang penjual dan pialang, dari bursa saham Wall Street hidup mewah bersama istri, putri belia berumur enam tahun Campbell, dan beberapa pembantunya. Judy istrinya adalah putri seorang professor sejarah yang selalu berlagak berasal dari keluarga aristokrat akademik. Sang istri pun masuk dalam kalangan elit, atas dukungan Sherman dia memiliki usaha di bidang dekorasi ruangan, apartmen, ataupun rumah. Pasangan McCoy kerap masuk dalam berita majalah sosialita.

Lahir dari uang dan kemewahan, ayahnya John McCoy adalah pengacara pada Wall Street. Semuanya telah dimilikinya; dari keluarga terbaik, berada dalam sekolah terbaik, mengejar gadis-gadis terbaik, karir terbaik, dan kini tinggal di lingkungan terbaik di New York. Tumpukan uang, penampilan mewah, menghanyutkannya dalam petualangan seks dan cinta terlarang. Maria Ruskin, wanita berusia dua puluh lima tahun, telah memberinya warna lain. Dia tahu, jika perselingkuhannya terungkap maka Judy akan membawa putrinya kesayangannya. Perceraian yang akan menghancurkan hidupnya. Dia telah berjanji tidak akan menemui Maria tetapi selalu gagal. Gadis berambut hitam itu memintanya dijemput di terminal kedatangan bandara internasional, dalam malam yang remang keduanya melewati daerah Bronx, wilayahnya para kulit hitam dan Puerto Rico. Ban mobil Mercedes yang ditumpangi Sherman dan gadisnya terblok, sesuatu benda seperti kaleng minuman atau badan manusia. Dia merasa menabrak sesuatu. Kendaraan mewah itu pun terhenti dan dua lelaki berkulit hitam muncul bertanya dan mendekati pintu. Sherman pun keluar dan mengetahui dia telah dijebak. Maria pun panik dan segera memanggilnya masuk, pemuda hitam yang seperti ingin merampok mereka.

Malam itu Henry Lamb keluar dari apartmen hendak membeli makanan. Dalam perjalanan bertemu Ronald Auburn, pemuda yang tinggal di komplek yangs sama dengannya. Lelaki bandal itu ingin memberi pelajaran cara menghentikan mobil pada Henry Lamb, pemuda yang baru saja lulus SMA yang hendak mendaftar kuliah. Henry hanya diam terpaku, ketika Ronald melemparkan kaleng minuman ke jalan dan membuat mobil McCoy terhenti. Setelah Sherman keluar dari mobilnya, Lamb panik berlari dan tidak terasa badannya tertabrak. Sherman dan Maria juga bingung tapi takut. Lamb sempat diperiksakan ke rumah sakit dan malam itu juga dia pulang ke rumah. Keesokan paginya dia bangun, merasakan sakit, dan terjatuh pingsan hingga dibawa ke instalasi gawat darurat oleh ibunya. Sejak saat itu Henry pun tidak pernah sadar dan koma. Namun, sebelum koma, dia sempat bilang pada ibunya bahwa dia ditabrak oleh sepasang kulit putih dalam Mercedez-Benz. Dia menyebut dua huruf plat mobil sport itu.

Karena masih dalam situasi demonstrasi isu rasis, berita itu pun cepat menjadi sorotan. Seorang pemuda baik, ditabrak lari oleh sepasang berkulit putih. Peter Fallow dari harian The City Light sangat ambisius memanfatkan kasus ini. Dia pun melakukan sederetan wawancara dari ibu Lamb, gurunya di sekolah, hingga tempat tinggalnya. Dengan kata-kata judul pedas dan provokatif. Tidak kalah para aktivis politik pun ikut panas. Si penabrak menjadi pembunuh, begitulah yel-yel dari para demonstran. Adalah pendeta Bacon seorang berkulit hitam yang dikenal dengan sosialis jalanan mendapat aduan dari Annie, ibu Henry Lamb. Wanita pegawai biro pernikahan itu takut melapor pada polisi karena dia sendiri memiliki segudang denda tiket parker yang belum dia selesaikan. Dengan pertolongan pendeta Bacon yang dibantu seorang tokoh politik yang berpengaruh dalam komunitas hitam, semua denda Annie terhapus dan berjanji menolong kasus tabrak lari Henry Lamb. Ketua Jaksa Agung Myron Kovitsky dan Kepala Jaksa Penuntut Weiss, seorang Yahudi, sedang ikut dalam pemilihan mendatang, mereka sangat membutuhkan suara dari komunitas hitam dan Puerto Rico dan Bronx adalah sarang suara.

Dari ciri mobil akhirnya asisten Jaksa Penuntut Lawrence Kramer dan dua detektif mendatangi Sherman atas kepemilikan Mercedes tapi investigasi saat itu tidak membuahkan hasil. Jaksa Penuntut Larry Kramer, berasal dari keluarga Yahudi miskin dan mendaftar pada fakultas hukum dalam usia tidak muda sebab ingin merubah nasib. Namun dia tetap tidak pernah mewah teman-teamannya di Wall Street, dia tetaplah pegawai biasa yang hidup di apartemen biasa. Atas kasus Sherman dia pun terkenal sering muncul di koran dan televisi. Sebetulnya dia memiliki kesamaan dengan Sherman. Diam-diam Kramer menyukai mantan juri dalam sebuah sidangnya. Shelly Thomas, gadis berlipstik coklat yang tidak pernah hilang dalam benaknya, tapi terkadang dia masih sadar dengan istrinya Rhoda dan bayi mereka.

Dari jaringan dengan orang kulit hitam nama Ronald Auburn pun muncul. Keterangan dari si anak bandal Ronald yang didapat dari lingkungan hitam memperjelas bahwa penabrak adalah Sherman. Lewat versi pengakuan Ronald dia mendengar suara wanita berambut hitam memanggil nama lelaki itu seperti ‘Shumun.’ Setelah penyidikan lebih dalam Sherman pun ditangkap dan sempat dikurung selama empat jam, dan bukan hal mudah baginya. Seorang lelaki trendi berpendidikan tinggi dan hidup di apartemen mewah disatukan dalam sebuah ruangan tahanan dengan para kriminal, dari pengedar narkoba, pencuri, pemerkosa, dan penjahat lainnya. Melihat Sherman bukan orang biasa, penuntut melipatgandakan uang jaminan menjadi dua puluh lima kali dari seharusnya.

Maria Ruskin telah menghilang sejak kejadian itu, tetapi kematian suaminya akibat serangan jantung memaksanya keluar dari persembunyian. Dalam kesaksiannya, Maria, mengatakan apa yang dialaminya malam itu. Sebenarnya dia telah menyarankan unutk melaporkan kejadian itu pada polisi tapi Sherman mencegah. Sherman tidak bisa membayangkan dirinya bersama Ny. Ruskin dalam mobil malam berduaan dan menabrak pemuda hitam. Kuatir istrinya Judy dan putrinya akan meninggalkannya dan reputasi buruk bagi karirnya di Wall Street. Walau selalu menyangkal, hubungan asmara Sherman dan kekasih gelapnya Maria semakin dalam, mereka telah menyewa sebuah apartemen tidak jauh dari kediaman keduanya. Terbukti dalam persidangan jika apartment cinta (sarang cinta) begitu disebut telah disadap oleh seseorang. Killian mencurigai Ronald telah kerjasama dengan Maria menjebak Sherman.

Setelah pemakaman, Sherman pun mengajak bertemu Maria dan membalas menjebak wanita itu dalam sebuah rekaman namun susah dijadikan alat bukti pengadilan. Proses persidangan sangat pelik, ruangan pengadilan dihujani kaum hitam dan bahkan sempat membuat keributan hingga menyerang jaksa dan Sherman. Atas saran sahabat ayahnya, Sherman memercayai perwakilan hukumnya pada pengacara Thomas Killian, seorang pengacara cerdas lulusan universitas terbaik, tetapi masih tergolong pemula, tidak banyak menolong. Lelaki itu telah kehilangan apartemennya demi membiayai ongkos hukumnya selama setahun. Kehabisan dana, Sherman menjadi pengacara dan pembela atas dirinya karena dia memang seorang lulusan hukum Yale. Dari biasa hidup mewah dia kini tinggal di apartemen murah. Pernikahannya pun terusik, istri dan putrinya telah pindah ke negara bagian lain. Setahun kemudian sidang putusan ditetapkan, Sherman tidak bersalah, namun dia masih melayani sederetan tuntutan lain atas dirinya.

Setelah kondisi koma dalam selama tiga belas bulan, Henry Lamb meninggal dunia dan ibunya mendapat santunan jutaan dolar dari negara. Ketua Jaksa Agung Kovisky kalah dalam pemilihan ulang dan Ketua Jaksa Weiss diturunkan dari jabatannya dan menyiapkan tuntutan baru terhadap Sherman atas kematian Henry Lamb. Mantan pengacara Sherman, Thomas Killian, naik derajat menjadi pengacara berkelas dan jaksa penuntut Kramer dipindahkan dari jabatannya karena keterkaitannya dengan pemilik apartemen ‘sarang cinta’. Rupanya Kramer mencarikan apartemen untuk gadis berlipstik coklat. Reporter Peter Fallow menerima penghargaan Pulitzer atas tulisannya dalam kasus McCoy.

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27 Mei 2016