The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987)
“The Fabulous Koala Never in his life had he seen things, the things of everyday life, more clearly. And his eyes poisoned every one of them!
In the bank on Nassau Street, which he had entered hundreds of times, where tellers, guards, junior officers, and the manager himself knew him as the estimable Mr. McCoy of Pierce & Pierce and called him by name, where he was so esteemed, in fact, they had given him a personal loan of $1.8 million to buy his apartment—and that loan cost him $21,000 a month!—and where was it going to come from!—oh God!—he now noticed the smallest things…the egg-and-dart molding around the cornice on the main floor…the old bronze shades on the lamps on the check-writing desks in the middle of the lobby…the spiral fluting on the posts supporting the railing between the lobby and the section where the officers sat…All so solid! so precise! so orderly!…and now so specious! such a mockery!…so worthless, offering no protection at all… Everybody smiled at him.
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