The Bonfire of the Vanities

At a town hall meeting in Harlem, the Mayor of New York City (unnamed in the text) is heckled by a large crowd, who demand jobs rather than homilies from him. When some people hurl antisemitic epithets against the mayor, he concludes that they have been planted by Reverend Bacon, a powerful Black American leader who wants the mayor voted out. The mayor feels defeated because he had wanted to convey the impression that he could hold a town hall in Harlem just like in any other district in New York. Unable to handle the crowd, the mayor’s security team lead him away from the stage.

At the same moment as the mayor is being led off the stage, Sherman McCoy is struggling to leash his pet dachshund in his opulent Park Avenue apartment. Sherman is 38, handsome, Yale-educated, and a bond salesperson at a prestigious Wall Street firm. He is particularly proud of his white Anglo-Saxon protestant (WASP) heritage and his jutting chin, which he dubs the “Yale chin.” He is married to Judy, a daughter of professors, who now works as an interior decorator for the wealthy.