“Bonfire” is sort of like the recent unpleasantness in Sanford and the press and political maneuvering around it, except 25 years ago in the Bronx.
Who thinks Clancy ever intended the Ryan books to be great literature, anyway? I don’t. I don’t think even he thought he was writing the next great American novel when he started writing “Red October”. He probably thought it sounded like an interesting story, he maybe thought other people would, and..he was right.
Bonfire’s EXACTLY like Sanford. Except that the protagonist (unfortunately for the national media) isn’t a stockbroker. But we’ve got everything else—black so-called reverends ginning up hate, the complete blackout by the media of anything questionable about the killed “student,” villification of the killer, courts/prosecutors/advocates all in a tither because of the racial overtones. It just goes on. I paid special attention to those book-scenes because they were created in Mayor Dinkens’ New York City. I drove through that city at night into potholes, rearranged or utterly destroyed traffic signs, and no street-lights. All I could think of then was that it was like Escape from New York (a movie, for those of you who don’t know, about Manhattan’s new status as a penal colony whose leaders have kidnapped the president). Now that I think of it, it’s kinda like what’s happened to our country in recent years.