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Just finish reading Bonfire of the Vanities (which is, btw, worth reading if you have loads of time like me but not exactly blow-your-head-off life-changing) and of course the lead antihero (there are many - why does Tom Wolfe seem to hate all his characters?) Sherman McCoy, works at Pierce & Pierce on Wall Street.
So what strikes me about this is that I as a Brit have no idea whether or not Pierce & Pierce exists, because as the educated amongst you will recall, P&P is also the workplace of the original American Psycho, Patrick Bateman.
BoV was published in 1988, Psycho in -when - the early 90s? Both characters are, to say the least, less than exemplary Americans. So if this place exists, how come they haven;t yet sued? Wolfe and Easton Ellis have made it very clear that they make a habit of employing chainsaw-wielding nutters and racist amoral hit-and-run bunnies as a matter of course.
And if they don't exist, did B E E read BoV and decide that - as an ironic comment on Wolfe's work - or perhaps simple one-upmanship - his "hero" should also work at Pierce & Pierce?
Or were the authors' decisions separate and unaffected by one another? Who influenced whom? Or does P&P exist and if so, is it such a massive symbol of capitalism, like the Bank of England or something?
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