The Bonfire of the Vanities

Sherman’s boss, Gene Lopwitz, summons him to his office to express concern over the mistakes Sherman has been making at work. While talking to Sherman, Lopwitz also conducts a phone discussion with an interior decorator. Lopwitz asks Sherman if trouble at home is affecting his work. Sherman feels tempted to reveal his affair and its disastrous consequences to Lopwitz but is put off by Lopwitz’s gossipy, nosy manner. Just then, Sherman gets a call from Killian and steps out of Lopwitz’s office. Killian tells Sherman the DA’s office has a witness in the Henry Lamb case, and Sherman will be placed under arrest tomorrow. Sherman is shocked as Killian had told him the DA’s office would not be able to build a case against him. Killian comforts Sherman and tells him to turn himself in the next day. A crestfallen Sherman returns to Lopwitz’s office and tells him everything. Lopwitz immediately begins to name-drop all the famous lawyers he knows, suggesting Sherman should have approached them. Sherman realizes Lopwitz is not angry at Sherman, just hungry for gossip and sensation.

Sherman walks around in a fog, slowly formulating his next steps. He withdraws $10,000 for bail money from his bank, wiping out his checking account, and goes over to his father’s office to tell him about the impending arrest. Sherman’s father, John, empathizes with him, although he is surprised Sherman approached Freddy for help. Sherman should have asked John, and John would have referred him to famous lawyers. The lawyers John names are old, retired federal judges, which makes Sherman see how out-of-touch his father has grown. Sherman feels a wave of pity for his father, especially when John offers to help him financially. John asks Sherman about Judy’s response to the news, and Sherman tells him Judy does not know yet. John is left speechless.

Sherman finally tells Judy about his affair and upcoming arrest, but changes some details, like he did with his father. In this version, Sherman and Maria had a minor flirtation, and Sherman was never intimate with Maria. A shocked Judy tells Sherman that she will support him outwardly but cannot love him anymore because of what he has done to her and Campbell. Dejected, Sherman goes to Campbell’s room, where Campbell shares with him a story she has written about a koala. Sherman is heartbroken by his daughter’s innocence and tells her people will soon be saying bad things about him. Campbell tells Sherman she loves him anyway and hugs him as if she were the parent.

Sherman spends the night in disbelief that he is going to jail the next morning. He decides to pull himself together for Campbell’s sake. Killian has arranged for Martin and Goldberg to pick him and Sherman up discreetly on their way to work. At 7:15 am, Sherman leaves his apartment to meet Killian, who is waiting for Sherman at the entrance to the apartment building. The detectives’ car pulls up at the corner, and Sherman and Killian get in. Sherman notices the car is filled with Styrofoam peanuts, which get all over his clothes. Martin, Goldberg, and Killian make small talk as if this is a routine drive. As they approach the courthouse, Martin and Goldberg tell Killian that Sherman will be taken to the Central Building, rather than through the side entrance as Fitzgibbon had promised Killian. Killian is incensed at the betrayal.

The policemen cuff Sherman, again violating the arrangement with Killian. A huge crowd, filled with TV crews, is waiting in the rain outside the Central Building. The press mobs Sherman as he walks toward the gate, asking him for soundbites. Killian wants to get Sherman inside the building fast, but the detectives tell him Weiss’s orders are that Sherman awaits his turn in the queue of defendants. The journalists and crowds heckle Sherman, calling him names. Peter Fallow is present at the scene too. Sherman somehow manages to get into the building, and Killian is sent away for the time being. Inside the building, the detectives ask Sherman to remove his belt and shoestrings. Sherman’s pants fall off after he removes the belt, and he feels humiliated. He holds his pants up and is taken to a cubicle, fingerprinted, and repeatedly run through a metal detector triggered by his fillings. The grimy pens are filled with vomiting people and men heckling Sherman. Sherman spots some men kicking a mouse around and tries to save the mouse, but it bites him. He flings away the mouse in a reflex, and the mouse lands on a man, who screams terrifyingly at Sherman. Just then, Sherman is summoned by a judge.

Killian and Kramer are present in the judge’s chambers. Kramer tells the judge Sherman’s bail has been raised to $250,000 given the grave nature of his charges. Killian furiously argues against the increase, and the judge agrees to set the bail at $10,000. Sherman is released. Outside the court building, Sherman promises himself that he will never go back inside again. He will shoot himself dead rather than revisit the horror.

Kramer and Weiss watch the TV coverage of Sherman coming to the courthouse. Kramer too is featured in the TV stories as the ADA pursuing justice for Henry. Sherman looks handsome but beleaguered and despondent in the coverage. The men go through The City Light, where the coverage runs into several pages. One of Fallow’s stories is now tracking the mysterious woman who was with Sherman in the car at the time of the hit-and-run. Weiss is pleased with the attention the case is getting, especially since it goes a long way toward reversing his office’s image. He complements Kramer for his work on the case, asking Kramer to call him “Abe.” Weiss also tells Kramer that though Bernie Fitzgibbon is upset at him for violating the promises made to Killian, Weiss does not want to be soft on Sherman. According to Weiss, Bernie, the Irishman, believes Sherman should get special treatment because he is a WASP.

The narrator notes that the Spanish psychologist Jose M.R. Delgado believed the hypothesis of the Bororo Indigenous people of the Amazon that the mind is a communal entity, “an open cavity […] in which the entire village dwells” (534). However, Delgado did not explore what happens to someone whose private self is suddenly exposed to the world. This is what Sherman undergoes after his Court House visit. Sherman has no privacy left, with the press and public invading all aspects of his life. Judy roams their apartment, shellshocked at the intrusion, and Campbell is confused. This morning, as Sherman walks Campbell to the bus stop, they are suddenly mobbed by several camera crews. The journalists even ask Campbell her name and photograph her without Sherman’s permission. An angry Sherman screams at the crews, asking for right of way. When they don’t relent, he pushes one of the camerawomen. The parents at the bus stop stare at the scene. Campbell gets onto the bus, crying.

After dropping off Campbell, Sherman meets Killian. He wants to fire Killian because of yesterday’s fiasco. Killian tells Sherman he has been working on strengthening Sherman’s defense. He has hired an investigator called Ed Quigley, who has discovered Roland Auburn is awaiting his fourth drug indictment. Killian believes that Roland twisted his testimony in exchange for dropping his charges. He plans to question Roland’s motives and background in the court. Sherman feels relieved. Quigley also tailed Maria and found out she went to Italy with an artist called Fillipo Chirazzi. Maria is now back in town, and Quigley and Killian will make sure Sherman meets her. Killian asks for $75,000 for Quigley’s retainer. Sherman pays up and drops the idea of firing Killian.

Kramer and Shelly are on another date. Shelly seems impressed by Kramer’s TV appearance. Sensing her admiration, Kramer tells her Roland Auburn is not an evil person, he just did some bad things. However, when Shelly begins to question the case, such as Roland’s delay in sharing information, Kramer turns defensive. He tells Shelly that Sherman’s arrest is important to show people the rich and famous cannot get away with everything they want. Later, Kramer kisses Shelly outside the restaurant and wonders what she is thinking at the moment. Shelly is thinking that all men in New York are the same. If one goes out with them, one must endure listening to “two or three hours of My Career first” (560).

Peter Fallow is at the Leicester, where he is greeted like a star. Caroline, his ex-girlfriend, shares an important tip with Fallow. Caroline tells him that the mysterious woman in Sherman’s car is Maria Ruskin, the wife of the magnate Arthur Ruskin. Her friend, Filippo Chirazzi, is having an affair with Maria and shared the information with Caroline.