Clever, sly, funny and tender., 04 Jul 2008
I bought this yesterday at a bookshop clearance having never before heard of the author. I was attracted by the subject matter (even though I was too old to be part of the 80s scene described) and the racy, witty style of writing which flows so effortlessly - a tribute to the writer's intellect. The other reviewers have done a much better job than I could but I just wanted to say the book was so good that I read it from start to finish in one sitting and have just ordered three more. I am still tittering over the tiny Bolivian soldiers who need Bolivian Marching Powder and there's quite a lot of laugh-out-loud humour in this book.

A masterpiece, 01 Jun 2008
Any author that can say all he wants to say so succinctly and absorbingly has to be worth a read.

This book might be short, but it is totally satisfying. The story may be as unhealthy as kebab and chips after a night on the town, but the reader is left feeling as replete as if they had eaten a 3 Michelin starred meal.

The very best, 06 Mar 2008
This book is the very best kind of literature, a small story that encompasses the whole modern human condition. Very powerful themes told in a painfully human and humorous way. This is the Catcher in the Rye for our time. In my top ten books of all time.

Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel, 29 Nov 2007
I read this literally the moment it came out decades ago. And now I've revisited it once more. This is not a large book but it packs a punch and is funny and gripping in its own way. My particular copy is the American version with a view of the World Trade Centers on the cover, in the background--talk about a book set in the past. But that's why I have so taken to it again; it is a time capsule of New York, the way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or the way the book "The Devil Wear Prada" is. And those books have more in common with "Bright Lights" than just insane bosses and drug and social problems. Few novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering in the way for the works of Palahniuk, Sedaris, McCrae, and Ellis. Even Burroughs ows something to Mr. McInerney. My only problem with this one book? It was too short and should have been a 400 page novel. It's rare you can say this about a book, but in this case, it's true.

Brightly lit, 07 Mar 2007
"Here you go again. All messed up and no place to go."

That line sets the tone for "Bright Lights, Big City." Jay McInerney's bestselling debut stands above other urban-angst novels of the time, which tended to go with shock value. Instead, McInerney experimented with second-person narratives and a vision of a fragmented, coke-dusted New York.

"You" are a young man living in New York, and wife Amanda has recently left you for a French photographer she met on a modelling shoot. Understandably you are depressed and unhappy, and the loss of Amanda haunts your moods, especially when her lawyer urges you to sue her for "sexual abandonment," even though you don't want a divorce.

By day, you work in the fact-checking department of a prestigious magazine, where your malignant boss is getting tired of you. By night, you halfheartedly prowl clubs with your pal Tad, doing drugs and meeting women you care nothing for. Will you be able to move past your problems and become happy again?

Consider that summary a little slice of what "Bright Lights, Big City" sounds like -- the reader is the main character, which allows the reader to slip into another's skin for a brief time. Second-person narratives are often annoying, but McInerney's style is so starkly compelling that the little narrative trick pays off.

The New York of "Bright Lights, Big City" is basically a big, glitzy, hollow place, but still strangely appealing. And McInerney adds splinters of reality here and there, like the tattooed girl and Coma Baby, which add to the gritty you-are-there feel of the novel itself. His dark sense of humour comes out in "your" thoughts: "your" boss resembles "one of those ageless disciplinarians who believe that little boys are evil and little girls frivolous, that an idle mind is the devil's playground."

And while many trendy novels of the time relied on shock value and obnoxious characters, McInerney keeps it low-key. The young man is likable and sympathetic, despite his tendency towards self-pity. And the people around him -- the self-absorbed Amanda, likable Tad and nasty "Clingwrap" -- seem surprisingly realistic, as well as the minor people who flit in and out of our hero's vision.

"Bright Lights, Big City" has gained a reputation as a trendy urban novel of the 1980s. Too bad. Though the trendiness has worn off, McInerney's style and story are still worth reading.

Clever, sly, funny and tender., 04 Jul 2008
I bought this yesterday at a bookshop clearance having never before heard of the author. I was attracted by the subject matter (even though I was too old to be part of the 80s scene described) and the racy, witty style of writing which flows so effortlessly - a tribute to the writer's intellect. The other reviewers have done a much better job than I could but I just wanted to say the book was so good that I read it from start to finish in one sitting and have just ordered three more. I am still tittering over the tiny Bolivian soldiers who need Bolivian Marching Powder and there's quite a lot of laugh-out-loud humour in this book.

A masterpiece, 01 Jun 2008
Any author that can say all he wants to say so succinctly and absorbingly has to be worth a read.

This book might be short, but it is totally satisfying. The story may be as unhealthy as kebab and chips after a night on the town, but the reader is left feeling as replete as if they had eaten a 3 Michelin starred meal.

The very best, 06 Mar 2008
This book is the very best kind of literature, a small story that encompasses the whole modern human condition. Very powerful themes told in a painfully human and humorous way. This is the Catcher in the Rye for our time. In my top ten books of all time.

Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel, 29 Nov 2007
I read this literally the moment it came out decades ago. And now I've revisited it once more. This is not a large book but it packs a punch and is funny and gripping in its own way. My particular copy is the American version with a view of the World Trade Centers on the cover, in the background--talk about a book set in the past. But that's why I have so taken to it again; it is a time capsule of New York, the way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or the way the book "The Devil Wear Prada" is. And those books have more in common with "Bright Lights" than just insane bosses and drug and social problems. Few novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering in the way for the works of Palahniuk, Sedaris, McCrae, and Ellis. Even Burroughs ows something to Mr. McInerney. My only problem with this one book? It was too short and should have been a 400 page novel. It's rare you can say this about a book, but in this case, it's true.

Brightly lit, 07 Mar 2007
"Here you go again. All messed up and no place to go."

That line sets the tone for "Bright Lights, Big City." Jay McInerney's bestselling debut stands above other urban-angst novels of the time, which tended to go with shock value. Instead, McInerney experimented with second-person narratives and a vision of a fragmented, coke-dusted New York.

"You" are a young man living in New York, and wife Amanda has recently left you for a French photographer she met on a modelling shoot. Understandably you are depressed and unhappy, and the loss of Amanda haunts your moods, especially when her lawyer urges you to sue her for "sexual abandonment," even though you don't want a divorce.

By day, you work in the fact-checking department of a prestigious magazine, where your malignant boss is getting tired of you. By night, you halfheartedly prowl clubs with your pal Tad, doing drugs and meeting women you care nothing for. Will you be able to move past your problems and become happy again?

Consider that summary a little slice of what "Bright Lights, Big City" sounds like -- the reader is the main character, which allows the reader to slip into another's skin for a brief time. Second-person narratives are often annoying, but McInerney's style is so starkly compelling that the little narrative trick pays off.

The New York of "Bright Lights, Big City" is basically a big, glitzy, hollow place, but still strangely appealing. And McInerney adds splinters of reality here and there, like the tattooed girl and Coma Baby, which add to the gritty you-are-there feel of the novel itself. His dark sense of humour comes out in "your" thoughts: "your" boss resembles "one of those ageless disciplinarians who believe that little boys are evil and little girls frivolous, that an idle mind is the devil's playground."

And while many trendy novels of the time relied on shock value and obnoxious characters, McInerney keeps it low-key. The young man is likable and sympathetic, despite his tendency towards self-pity. And the people around him -- the self-absorbed Amanda, likable Tad and nasty "Clingwrap" -- seem surprisingly realistic, as well as the minor people who flit in and out of our hero's vision.

"Bright Lights, Big City" has gained a reputation as a trendy urban novel of the 1980s. Too bad. Though the trendiness has worn off, McInerney's style and story are still worth reading.

a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.

A superb novel to read, and then re-read.


Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel.

As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!

Clever, sly, funny and tender., 04 Jul 2008
I bought this yesterday at a bookshop clearance having never before heard of the author. I was attracted by the subject matter (even though I was too old to be part of the 80s scene described) and the racy, witty style of writing which flows so effortlessly - a tribute to the writer's intellect. The other reviewers have done a much better job than I could but I just wanted to say the book was so good that I read it from start to finish in one sitting and have just ordered three more. I am still tittering over the tiny Bolivian soldiers who need Bolivian Marching Powder and there's quite a lot of laugh-out-loud humour in this book.

A masterpiece, 01 Jun 2008
Any author that can say all he wants to say so succinctly and absorbingly has to be worth a read.

This book might be short, but it is totally satisfying. The story may be as unhealthy as kebab and chips after a night on the town, but the reader is left feeling as replete as if they had eaten a 3 Michelin starred meal.

The very best, 06 Mar 2008
This book is the very best kind of literature, a small story that encompasses the whole modern human condition. Very powerful themes told in a painfully human and humorous way. This is the Catcher in the Rye for our time. In my top ten books of all time.

Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel, 29 Nov 2007
I read this literally the moment it came out decades ago. And now I've revisited it once more. This is not a large book but it packs a punch and is funny and gripping in its own way. My particular copy is the American version with a view of the World Trade Centers on the cover, in the background--talk about a book set in the past. But that's why I have so taken to it again; it is a time capsule of New York, the way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or the way the book "The Devil Wear Prada" is. And those books have more in common with "Bright Lights" than just insane bosses and drug and social problems. Few novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering in the way for the works of Palahniuk, Sedaris, McCrae, and Ellis. Even Burroughs ows something to Mr. McInerney. My only problem with this one book? It was too short and should have been a 400 page novel. It's rare you can say this about a book, but in this case, it's true.

Brightly lit, 07 Mar 2007
"Here you go again. All messed up and no place to go."

That line sets the tone for "Bright Lights, Big City." Jay McInerney's bestselling debut stands above other urban-angst novels of the time, which tended to go with shock value. Instead, McInerney experimented with second-person narratives and a vision of a fragmented, coke-dusted New York.

"You" are a young man living in New York, and wife Amanda has recently left you for a French photographer she met on a modelling shoot. Understandably you are depressed and unhappy, and the loss of Amanda haunts your moods, especially when her lawyer urges you to sue her for "sexual abandonment," even though you don't want a divorce.

By day, you work in the fact-checking department of a prestigious magazine, where your malignant boss is getting tired of you. By night, you halfheartedly prowl clubs with your pal Tad, doing drugs and meeting women you care nothing for. Will you be able to move past your problems and become happy again?

Consider that summary a little slice of what "Bright Lights, Big City" sounds like -- the reader is the main character, which allows the reader to slip into another's skin for a brief time. Second-person narratives are often annoying, but McInerney's style is so starkly compelling that the little narrative trick pays off.

The New York of "Bright Lights, Big City" is basically a big, glitzy, hollow place, but still strangely appealing. And McInerney adds splinters of reality here and there, like the tattooed girl and Coma Baby, which add to the gritty you-are-there feel of the novel itself. His dark sense of humour comes out in "your" thoughts: "your" boss resembles "one of those ageless disciplinarians who believe that little boys are evil and little girls frivolous, that an idle mind is the devil's playground."

And while many trendy novels of the time relied on shock value and obnoxious characters, McInerney keeps it low-key. The young man is likable and sympathetic, despite his tendency towards self-pity. And the people around him -- the self-absorbed Amanda, likable Tad and nasty "Clingwrap" -- seem surprisingly realistic, as well as the minor people who flit in and out of our hero's vision.

"Bright Lights, Big City" has gained a reputation as a trendy urban novel of the 1980s. Too bad. Though the trendiness has worn off, McInerney's style and story are still worth reading.

a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.

A superb novel to read, and then re-read.


Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel.

As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!

A bit disappointing, 06 Nov 2008
After `Brightness Falls' (I read it years ago and liked it), `The Good Life' is a sort of sequel for some of the characters previously depicted: we find Russell and Corrine Callaway, Luke and Sasha McGavock and their respective families.

New York's Upper East Side wealthy society is the main background. Then the 9/11 tragedy strikes and life changes. Feeling shocked -they both lose a friend in the wreckage-, lost and adrift like everybody else, Luke and Corrine meet by chance at Ground Zero, where they are both helping out. Before 9/11, they both had unresolved issues at home, and now, incredibility ensues for them as they slowly but inexorably fall in love amidst the ruins. They try to deal with the emotional turmoil and tormented longing they both feel. This book is primarily the story of their escalating love and the conflicts that this generates in their mind and soul, the concern for their family a major issue.

Well, I believe that the main concept of this book is good but it still failed to engage me in full. Overly descriptive at times, the reading was often dragging. In short, may I say it, a bit boring. No, not up to (my) standard. My true vote would be 2 and ½ stars, but I concede the other half as I have enjoyed other books by Mr. McInerney and have appreciated him as a writer, especially where characterization is concerned.


Love and death, 17 Jul 2008
I've read McInerney's "Brightness Falls" twice, and greatly enjoyed its portrayal of a specific historical event (the stock market crash of 1987) and its impact on Russell and Corrine, a stylish, likeable but flawed couple, and their friends and life in Manhattan. In this book, he places them in the path of an even bigger event, and traces out their trajectories as their lives are shattered and remodelled in the wake of September 11. He brings back a few other characters from the earlier book, but also introduces some new ones - retired investment banker Luke, his socialite wife Sasha and their unstable teenaged daughter Ashley.

It's not hard to guess what the role of Luke is going to turn out to be as he stumbles up West Broadway, away from the nightmare of ash, smoke and death, and encounters Corrine, who offers him "a bottle of Evian" (even in moments of crisis, McInerney's knack for product placement doesn't falter). And, from that point onwards, the event fades into the background as we concentrate on their relationship. On the whole, this is probably a wise move, since writing more directly about the cataclysm and its aftermath is probably too challenging to pull off convincingly.

And McInerney deftly traces out the themes of desire, betrayal, duty and fidelity in a way that's thoroughly engrossing, particularly when he gives us Corrine's point of view. Only at the very end does he bring the story full circle with an elegaic connection between the way in which this all started, and the way it ends.


Worth a read, 22 Aug 2007
This is the first McInerney work that I have read and indeed the first novel I have read in some time, having given myself over to crosswords, su doku and the like.
I very much enjoyed the book. The scene is NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, so if you like modern American literature, I should imagine you will like it very much.
I am now reading Brightness Falls, which follows two of the main characters back in the early 80's, also in NYC.
Overall, I would definitley recommend this.

The Good Life, 07 Apr 2006
This is a wonderful sequel to Brightness Falls. It gives insight into how New Yorkers reacted to 9/11, as well as raising the larger question as to how life should be lived. The characters are beautifully drawn and observed, and the writing seemingly effortless. I thoroughly recommend this novel. Fans will not be disappointed and new readers will be enthralled.

Mesmerising, 21 Mar 2006
In this tale of love and infidelity in the aftermath of 9/11, fashionable Manhattanites Corrine Calloway and Luke McGavock embark on an adulterous affair and are forced to confront painful questions of familial responsibility, personal fulfilment and the need for social affirmation.

Told with a characteristic light touch, in prose that is funny, poignant and always utterly compelling, the novel poses the ultimate question: In the shadow of death, what is the essence of the good life?

This weighty topic is something of a departure for McInerney, who is best known for his mordant social satire of the rich and famous. But he carries off the task with extraordinary aplomb. While his eye for ironic detail is as keen as ever, he proves that he has matured to a storyteller of the highest order, capable of conveying the magnificence, tragedy and absurdity of the human condition. A masterpiece.

Clever, sly, funny and tender., 04 Jul 2008
I bought this yesterday at a bookshop clearance having never before heard of the author. I was attracted by the subject matter (even though I was too old to be part of the 80s scene described) and the racy, witty style of writing which flows so effortlessly - a tribute to the writer's intellect. The other reviewers have done a much better job than I could but I just wanted to say the book was so good that I read it from start to finish in one sitting and have just ordered three more. I am still tittering over the tiny Bolivian soldiers who need Bolivian Marching Powder and there's quite a lot of laugh-out-loud humour in this book.

A masterpiece, 01 Jun 2008
Any author that can say all he wants to say so succinctly and absorbingly has to be worth a read.

This book might be short, but it is totally satisfying. The story may be as unhealthy as kebab and chips after a night on the town, but the reader is left feeling as replete as if they had eaten a 3 Michelin starred meal.

The very best, 06 Mar 2008
This book is the very best kind of literature, a small story that encompasses the whole modern human condition. Very powerful themes told in a painfully human and humorous way. This is the Catcher in the Rye for our time. In my top ten books of all time.

Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel, 29 Nov 2007
I read this literally the moment it came out decades ago. And now I've revisited it once more. This is not a large book but it packs a punch and is funny and gripping in its own way. My particular copy is the American version with a view of the World Trade Centers on the cover, in the background--talk about a book set in the past. But that's why I have so taken to it again; it is a time capsule of New York, the way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or the way the book "The Devil Wear Prada" is. And those books have more in common with "Bright Lights" than just insane bosses and drug and social problems. Few novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering in the way for the works of Palahniuk, Sedaris, McCrae, and Ellis. Even Burroughs ows something to Mr. McInerney. My only problem with this one book? It was too short and should have been a 400 page novel. It's rare you can say this about a book, but in this case, it's true.

Brightly lit, 07 Mar 2007
"Here you go again. All messed up and no place to go."

That line sets the tone for "Bright Lights, Big City." Jay McInerney's bestselling debut stands above other urban-angst novels of the time, which tended to go with shock value. Instead, McInerney experimented with second-person narratives and a vision of a fragmented, coke-dusted New York.

"You" are a young man living in New York, and wife Amanda has recently left you for a French photographer she met on a modelling shoot. Understandably you are depressed and unhappy, and the loss of Amanda haunts your moods, especially when her lawyer urges you to sue her for "sexual abandonment," even though you don't want a divorce.

By day, you work in the fact-checking department of a prestigious magazine, where your malignant boss is getting tired of you. By night, you halfheartedly prowl clubs with your pal Tad, doing drugs and meeting women you care nothing for. Will you be able to move past your problems and become happy again?

Consider that summary a little slice of what "Bright Lights, Big City" sounds like -- the reader is the main character, which allows the reader to slip into another's skin for a brief time. Second-person narratives are often annoying, but McInerney's style is so starkly compelling that the little narrative trick pays off.

The New York of "Bright Lights, Big City" is basically a big, glitzy, hollow place, but still strangely appealing. And McInerney adds splinters of reality here and there, like the tattooed girl and Coma Baby, which add to the gritty you-are-there feel of the novel itself. His dark sense of humour comes out in "your" thoughts: "your" boss resembles "one of those ageless disciplinarians who believe that little boys are evil and little girls frivolous, that an idle mind is the devil's playground."

And while many trendy novels of the time relied on shock value and obnoxious characters, McInerney keeps it low-key. The young man is likable and sympathetic, despite his tendency towards self-pity. And the people around him -- the self-absorbed Amanda, likable Tad and nasty "Clingwrap" -- seem surprisingly realistic, as well as the minor people who flit in and out of our hero's vision.

"Bright Lights, Big City" has gained a reputation as a trendy urban novel of the 1980s. Too bad. Though the trendiness has worn off, McInerney's style and story are still worth reading.

a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.

A superb novel to read, and then re-read.


Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel.

As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!

A bit disappointing, 06 Nov 2008
After `Brightness Falls' (I read it years ago and liked it), `The Good Life' is a sort of sequel for some of the characters previously depicted: we find Russell and Corrine Callaway, Luke and Sasha McGavock and their respective families.

New York's Upper East Side wealthy society is the main background. Then the 9/11 tragedy strikes and life changes. Feeling shocked -they both lose a friend in the wreckage-, lost and adrift like everybody else, Luke and Corrine meet by chance at Ground Zero, where they are both helping out. Before 9/11, they both had unresolved issues at home, and now, incredibility ensues for them as they slowly but inexorably fall in love amidst the ruins. They try to deal with the emotional turmoil and tormented longing they both feel. This book is primarily the story of their escalating love and the conflicts that this generates in their mind and soul, the concern for their family a major issue.

Well, I believe that the main concept of this book is good but it still failed to engage me in full. Overly descriptive at times, the reading was often dragging. In short, may I say it, a bit boring. No, not up to (my) standard. My true vote would be 2 and ½ stars, but I concede the other half as I have enjoyed other books by Mr. McInerney and have appreciated him as a writer, especially where characterization is concerned.


Love and death, 17 Jul 2008
I've read McInerney's "Brightness Falls" twice, and greatly enjoyed its portrayal of a specific historical event (the stock market crash of 1987) and its impact on Russell and Corrine, a stylish, likeable but flawed couple, and their friends and life in Manhattan. In this book, he places them in the path of an even bigger event, and traces out their trajectories as their lives are shattered and remodelled in the wake of September 11. He brings back a few other characters from the earlier book, but also introduces some new ones - retired investment banker Luke, his socialite wife Sasha and their unstable teenaged daughter Ashley.

It's not hard to guess what the role of Luke is going to turn out to be as he stumbles up West Broadway, away from the nightmare of ash, smoke and death, and encounters Corrine, who offers him "a bottle of Evian" (even in moments of crisis, McInerney's knack for product placement doesn't falter). And, from that point onwards, the event fades into the background as we concentrate on their relationship. On the whole, this is probably a wise move, since writing more directly about the cataclysm and its aftermath is probably too challenging to pull off convincingly.

And McInerney deftly traces out the themes of desire, betrayal, duty and fidelity in a way that's thoroughly engrossing, particularly when he gives us Corrine's point of view. Only at the very end does he bring the story full circle with an elegaic connection between the way in which this all started, and the way it ends.


Worth a read, 22 Aug 2007
This is the first McInerney work that I have read and indeed the first novel I have read in some time, having given myself over to crosswords, su doku and the like.
I very much enjoyed the book. The scene is NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, so if you like modern American literature, I should imagine you will like it very much.
I am now reading Brightness Falls, which follows two of the main characters back in the early 80's, also in NYC.
Overall, I would definitley recommend this.

The Good Life, 07 Apr 2006
This is a wonderful sequel to Brightness Falls. It gives insight into how New Yorkers reacted to 9/11, as well as raising the larger question as to how life should be lived. The characters are beautifully drawn and observed, and the writing seemingly effortless. I thoroughly recommend this novel. Fans will not be disappointed and new readers will be enthralled.

Mesmerising, 21 Mar 2006
In this tale of love and infidelity in the aftermath of 9/11, fashionable Manhattanites Corrine Calloway and Luke McGavock embark on an adulterous affair and are forced to confront painful questions of familial responsibility, personal fulfilment and the need for social affirmation.

Told with a characteristic light touch, in prose that is funny, poignant and always utterly compelling, the novel poses the ultimate question: In the shadow of death, what is the essence of the good life?

This weighty topic is something of a departure for McInerney, who is best known for his mordant social satire of the rich and famous. But he carries off the task with extraordinary aplomb. While his eye for ironic detail is as keen as ever, he proves that he has matured to a storyteller of the highest order, capable of conveying the magnificence, tragedy and absurdity of the human condition. A masterpiece.

Changed my opinion on this style of writing., 06 May 2006
Once upon a time this kind of book would have hacked me off to extent that I'd want to call the author and scream murder at him. Spoilt rich kids moaning about their problems while poncing around in designer clothes, doing fasionable drugs, and eating at restaurants where a meal costs about the same price as the average working class man's weekly wage, never appealed to me. But I don't know, somehow this book as won me over. There's great parts of this book I can kind of relate to and I can empathise with characters (as rich and as shallow as they are). The great thing though is that no matter what back ground you come from you'll know people who are like these characters. This book is funny and true to life in many parts and I recommend it.

If you like the genre..., 30 Sep 2003
This is another offering from one of the Gen X gang - someone I drifted into after I had run out of Douglas Coupland - and it ticks the same boxes - disillusioned twenty-somethings with pretty relaxed attitudes towards drugs and sex being the main one.
This is done nicely, however, using the first person to carry the narrative at a nice pace. Personally, I'm never sure about males writing through female narrators, but here it works flawlessly, and the character is so real it is easy to be drawn in and read the story as an autobiography - a feat in itself. There are also plenty of occasions where the reader can see the pothole before the narrator falls into it, which again draws you in.
In short, this isn't rocket science, but it's a really good read, with strong characters and a real energy to it - I finished it in 3 or 4 days without noticing. If you like the genre, this is a good example

Ace, 10 Apr 2001
Did any of you notice that in American Psycho, Patrick Bateman meets Alison and attacks her? These two writers (McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis) cross reference each other all over the place. Try reading both.

An amazingly funny book with one liners you'll keep on using, 06 Nov 2000
I have to say this book is brilliant. Written from Alison's, the main characters' point of view. Its smart, cynical and profoundly sad in parts. Its just so amazing that its written by a man who by the way is the most convincing woman! Alison is spoilt insecure, manipulative, vain and unfortunately damaged in a way rich kids can only be. Not a book to read whilst on public transport unless you get your kicks from laughing uncontrollably in front of total strangers who know that getting on a bus is a surefire way to meet the weirdest of the weird. Buy & Enjoy, I did

Clever, sly, funny and tender., 04 Jul 2008
I bought this yesterday at a bookshop clearance having never before heard of the author. I was attracted by the subject matter (even though I was too old to be part of the 80s scene described) and the racy, witty style of writing which flows so effortlessly - a tribute to the writer's intellect. The other reviewers have done a much better job than I could but I just wanted to say the book was so good that I read it from start to finish in one sitting and have just ordered three more. I am still tittering over the tiny Bolivian soldiers who need Bolivian Marching Powder and there's quite a lot of laugh-out-loud humour in this book.

A masterpiece, 01 Jun 2008
Any author that can say all he wants to say so succinctly and absorbingly has to be worth a read.

This book might be short, but it is totally satisfying. The story may be as unhealthy as kebab and chips after a night on the town, but the reader is left feeling as replete as if they had eaten a 3 Michelin starred meal.

The very best, 06 Mar 2008
This book is the very best kind of literature, a small story that encompasses the whole modern human condition. Very powerful themes told in a painfully human and humorous way. This is the Catcher in the Rye for our time. In my top ten books of all time.

Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel, 29 Nov 2007
I read this literally the moment it came out decades ago. And now I've revisited it once more. This is not a large book but it packs a punch and is funny and gripping in its own way. My particular copy is the American version with a view of the World Trade Centers on the cover, in the background--talk about a book set in the past. But that's why I have so taken to it again; it is a time capsule of New York, the way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or the way the book "The Devil Wear Prada" is. And those books have more in common with "Bright Lights" than just insane bosses and drug and social problems. Few novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering in the way for the works of Palahniuk, Sedaris, McCrae, and Ellis. Even Burroughs ows something to Mr. McInerney. My only problem with this one book? It was too short and should have been a 400 page novel. It's rare you can say this about a book, but in this case, it's true.

Brightly lit, 07 Mar 2007
"Here you go again. All messed up and no place to go."

That line sets the tone for "Bright Lights, Big City." Jay McInerney's bestselling debut stands above other urban-angst novels of the time, which tended to go with shock value. Instead, McInerney experimented with second-person narratives and a vision of a fragmented, coke-dusted New York.

"You" are a young man living in New York, and wife Amanda has recently left you for a French photographer she met on a modelling shoot. Understandably you are depressed and unhappy, and the loss of Amanda haunts your moods, especially when her lawyer urges you to sue her for "sexual abandonment," even though you don't want a divorce.

By day, you work in the fact-checking department of a prestigious magazine, where your malignant boss is getting tired of you. By night, you halfheartedly prowl clubs with your pal Tad, doing drugs and meeting women you care nothing for. Will you be able to move past your problems and become happy again?

Consider that summary a little slice of what "Bright Lights, Big City" sounds like -- the reader is the main character, which allows the reader to slip into another's skin for a brief time. Second-person narratives are often annoying, but McInerney's style is so starkly compelling that the little narrative trick pays off.

The New York of "Bright Lights, Big City" is basically a big, glitzy, hollow place, but still strangely appealing. And McInerney adds splinters of reality here and there, like the tattooed girl and Coma Baby, which add to the gritty you-are-there feel of the novel itself. His dark sense of humour comes out in "your" thoughts: "your" boss resembles "one of those ageless disciplinarians who believe that little boys are evil and little girls frivolous, that an idle mind is the devil's playground."

And while many trendy novels of the time relied on shock value and obnoxious characters, McInerney keeps it low-key. The young man is likable and sympathetic, despite his tendency towards self-pity. And the people around him -- the self-absorbed Amanda, likable Tad and nasty "Clingwrap" -- seem surprisingly realistic, as well as the minor people who flit in and out of our hero's vision.

"Bright Lights, Big City" has gained a reputation as a trendy urban novel of the 1980s. Too bad. Though the trendiness has worn off, McInerney's style and story are still worth reading.

a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.

A superb novel to read, and then re-read.


Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel.

As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!

A bit disappointing, 06 Nov 2008
After `Brightness Falls' (I read it years ago and liked it), `The Good Life' is a sort of sequel for some of the characters previously depicted: we find Russell and Corrine Callaway, Luke and Sasha McGavock and their respective families.

New York's Upper East Side wealthy society is the main background. Then the 9/11 tragedy strikes and life changes. Feeling shocked -they both lose a friend in the wreckage-, lost and adrift like everybody else, Luke and Corrine meet by chance at Ground Zero, where they are both helping out. Before 9/11, they both had unresolved issues at home, and now, incredibility ensues for them as they slowly but inexorably fall in love amidst the ruins. They try to deal with the emotional turmoil and tormented longing they both feel. This book is primarily the story of their escalating love and the conflicts that this generates in their mind and soul, the concern for their family a major issue.

Well, I believe that the main concept of this book is good but it still failed to engage me in full. Overly descriptive at times, the reading was often dragging. In short, may I say it, a bit boring. No, not up to (my) standard. My true vote would be 2 and ½ stars, but I concede the other half as I have enjoyed other books by Mr. McInerney and have appreciated him as a writer, especially where characterization is concerned.


Love and death, 17 Jul 2008
I've read McInerney's "Brightness Falls" twice, and greatly enjoyed its portrayal of a specific historical event (the stock market crash of 1987) and its impact on Russell and Corrine, a stylish, likeable but flawed couple, and their friends and life in Manhattan. In this book, he places them in the path of an even bigger event, and traces out their trajectories as their lives are shattered and remodelled in the wake of September 11. He brings back a few other characters from the earlier book, but also introduces some new ones - retired investment banker Luke, his socialite wife Sasha and their unstable teenaged daughter Ashley.

It's not hard to guess what the role of Luke is going to turn out to be as he stumbles up West Broadway, away from the nightmare of ash, smoke and death, and encounters Corrine, who offers him "a bottle of Evian" (even in moments of crisis, McInerney's knack for product placement doesn't falter). And, from that point onwards, the event fades into the background as we concentrate on their relationship. On the whole, this is probably a wise move, since writing more directly about the cataclysm and its aftermath is probably too challenging to pull off convincingly.

And McInerney deftly traces out the themes of desire, betrayal, duty and fidelity in a way that's thoroughly engrossing, particularly when he gives us Corrine's point of view. Only at the very end does he bring the story full circle with an elegaic connection between the way in which this all started, and the way it ends.


Worth a read, 22 Aug 2007
This is the first McInerney work that I have read and indeed the first novel I have read in some time, having given myself over to crosswords, su doku and the like.
I very much enjoyed the book. The scene is NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, so if you like modern American literature, I should imagine you will like it very much.
I am now reading Brightness Falls, which follows two of the main characters back in the early 80's, also in NYC.
Overall, I would definitley recommend this.

The Good Life, 07 Apr 2006
This is a wonderful sequel to Brightness Falls. It gives insight into how New Yorkers reacted to 9/11, as well as raising the larger question as to how life should be lived. The characters are beautifully drawn and observed, and the writing seemingly effortless. I thoroughly recommend this novel. Fans will not be disappointed and new readers will be enthralled.

Mesmerising, 21 Mar 2006
In this tale of love and infidelity in the aftermath of 9/11, fashionable Manhattanites Corrine Calloway and Luke McGavock embark on an adulterous affair and are forced to confront painful questions of familial responsibility, personal fulfilment and the need for social affirmation.

Told with a characteristic light touch, in prose that is funny, poignant and always utterly compelling, the novel poses the ultimate question: In the shadow of death, what is the essence of the good life?

This weighty topic is something of a departure for McInerney, who is best known for his mordant social satire of the rich and famous. But he carries off the task with extraordinary aplomb. While his eye for ironic detail is as keen as ever, he proves that he has matured to a storyteller of the highest order, capable of conveying the magnificence, tragedy and absurdity of the human condition. A masterpiece.

Changed my opinion on this style of writing., 06 May 2006
Once upon a time this kind of book would have hacked me off to extent that I'd want to call the author and scream murder at him. Spoilt rich kids moaning about their problems while poncing around in designer clothes, doing fasionable drugs, and eating at restaurants where a meal costs about the same price as the average working class man's weekly wage, never appealed to me. But I don't know, somehow this book as won me over. There's great parts of this book I can kind of relate to and I can empathise with characters (as rich and as shallow as they are). The great thing though is that no matter what back ground you come from you'll know people who are like these characters. This book is funny and true to life in many parts and I recommend it.

If you like the genre..., 30 Sep 2003
This is another offering from one of the Gen X gang - someone I drifted into after I had run out of Douglas Coupland - and it ticks the same boxes - disillusioned twenty-somethings with pretty relaxed attitudes towards drugs and sex being the main one.
This is done nicely, however, using the first person to carry the narrative at a nice pace. Personally, I'm never sure about males writing through female narrators, but here it works flawlessly, and the character is so real it is easy to be drawn in and read the story as an autobiography - a feat in itself. There are also plenty of occasions where the reader can see the pothole before the narrator falls into it, which again draws you in.
In short, this isn't rocket science, but it's a really good read, with strong characters and a real energy to it - I finished it in 3 or 4 days without noticing. If you like the genre, this is a good example

Ace, 10 Apr 2001
Did any of you notice that in American Psycho, Patrick Bateman meets Alison and attacks her? These two writers (McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis) cross reference each other all over the place. Try reading both.

An amazingly funny book with one liners you'll keep on using, 06 Nov 2000
I have to say this book is brilliant. Written from Alison's, the main characters' point of view. Its smart, cynical and profoundly sad in parts. Its just so amazing that its written by a man who by the way is the most convincing woman! Alison is spoilt insecure, manipulative, vain and unfortunately damaged in a way rich kids can only be. Not a book to read whilst on public transport unless you get your kicks from laughing uncontrollably in front of total strangers who know that getting on a bus is a surefire way to meet the weirdest of the weird. Buy & Enjoy, I did

A fulfilling, substantial read, 01 Jun 2008
If, like me, you were young in the loadsamoney late 80s, then this book will bring back memories and confirm all your suscpicions about 'the beautiful people'.

This is not a quick read: it could not be done in one sitting by even the fastest speed readers. However, part of the pleasure of this book is the depth with which all the characters are drawn and the mounting tension as things reach breaking point in all aspects of life.

Brightness Falls but Brilliance Rises, 18 Jun 2002
This, rather than his more epic but also more flawed Last Of The Savages, is McInerney's closest and most successful stab at the great American novel. Beautifully structured, perfectly characterised with passages of writing at once humorous and heartbreaking, the novel manges to be as epic in scope as its New York setting yet as intimate and compelling as the marriage it portrays. The only real comparison to do it justice is Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night, another novel that succeeded in telling us all about a time and a place at a particular period through telling us about two people and their strange and yet ultimately sustaining love. Because the author is rightly seen as a humourist it is easy to forget that that few modern writers can cast an eye on places and people at once sharply objective and wryly compassionate and it is also forgotten what a fine writer McInerney can be, something he demonstrates amply and consistently in Brighntess Falls. A fine romance, a lovesong to a city and an era passed, a surprising portrait of what marrigage is and does, a tender social satire and something like a modern classic, I would highly recommnend this underated book.

The Dark is Rising, 26 May 2002
After the wit and brevity of Bright Lights..., Story of My Life and Ransom, Brightness Falls is McInerney's effortful biggie, 400+ pages and witty rather than comic. It covers a year in the life of husband and wife Russell and Corrine Calloway. He's a publisher and she's a stock dealer, and their marriage will pretty soon be in trouble. As the action takes place in the year to October 1987, you can probably guess where we're heading. Yes, it's an historical novel (although he wrote it contemporaneously) with all the prerequisites of 80s Manhattan life, down to and including a big disease with a little name.

Plotwise, even the blurb finds it difficult to make the book sound interesting, feebly tailing off with a Robert Goddard-esque "None of them would ever be the same again..." Because the plot itself wouldn't drive you wild with desire, unless you like to read about management buyouts and corporate shafting. It starts off weakly too, with that most dangerous of set pieces, the dinner party, so the author can introduce lots of characters at once. (The disappointing Gosford Park, the careful will recall, was one big dinner party scene.) But it settles down quite quickly and once he entered the mind of Corrine in chapter 3, I was hooked. The book then trundles on for 400 agreeable pages, with everyone suffering minor setbacks but nothing too serious - they are the beautiful people, after all - even the writer who goes cold turkey in a rehab clinic seems to take it all with insouciance and a dry wit. (Up to a point.)

Where Brightness Falls succeeds best, though, is in making you think that this is a retelling of some archetypal story that you already knew. "Ah yes," you find yourself thinking throughout, "this is that book about the yuppies who lose it all..." It almost makes you believe that Brightness Falls is the original myth - if it hadn't been for Bonfire of the Vanities... And readers of McInerney's last novel Model Behaviour may recognise a plot point, lifted wholesale from Brightness Falls and redelivered (rather more successfully, I might add) in humorous context. A book, then, that is in both senses of the word, truly *economic.*

I LOVE this book!, 04 Mar 2002
I think very carefully before I give a book five stars, but I found this story so captivating and well-written, that in my opinion, it deserves it!

The story follows the lives of a young married couple living in New York. It tells the highs and the lows of their life together, and their working lives, and documents the pressures they are under, and the effect is has on their marriage.

Like Bonfire of the Vanities, what appeals to me most about this book is that it shows us a whole cross-section of New York life, from the millionaires with their chic apartments and holiday homes, to the homeless in their shanty town in the Lower East Side. Manhattan as a backdrop is an essential part of the story.

The characters are believable and likeable, and although the story concentrates on two main people, the surrounding characters are well developed too.

Jay McInerney has excelled himself, producing a novel that is hard to put down. I highly recommend this book to both the casual reader, and anyone who has an interest in Sociology or Urban Geography.

Another reader from UK, 25 Jan 2001
Simply the best piece of fiction I have ever read, even better than Bright Lights and Last of the Savages! I am shocked to see a one star rating for this superb story.

Clever, sly, funny and tender., 04 Jul 2008
I bought this yesterday at a bookshop clearance having never before heard of the author. I was attracted by the subject matter (even though I was too old to be part of the 80s scene described) and the racy, witty style of writing which flows so effortlessly - a tribute to the writer's intellect. The other reviewers have done a much better job than I could but I just wanted to say the book was so good that I read it from start to finish in one sitting and have just ordered three more. I am still tittering over the tiny Bolivian soldiers who need Bolivian Marching Powder and there's quite a lot of laugh-out-loud humour in this book.

A masterpiece, 01 Jun 2008
Any author that can say all he wants to say so succinctly and absorbingly has to be worth a read.

This book might be short, but it is totally satisfying. The story may be as unhealthy as kebab and chips after a night on the town, but the reader is left feeling as replete as if they had eaten a 3 Michelin starred meal.

The very best, 06 Mar 2008
This book is the very best kind of literature, a small story that encompasses the whole modern human condition. Very powerful themes told in a painfully human and humorous way. This is the Catcher in the Rye for our time. In my top ten books of all time.

Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel, 29 Nov 2007
I read this literally the moment it came out decades ago. And now I've revisited it once more. This is not a large book but it packs a punch and is funny and gripping in its own way. My particular copy is the American version with a view of the World Trade Centers on the cover, in the background--talk about a book set in the past. But that's why I have so taken to it again; it is a time capsule of New York, the way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or the way the book "The Devil Wear Prada" is. And those books have more in common with "Bright Lights" than just insane bosses and drug and social problems. Few novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering in the way for the works of Palahniuk, Sedaris, McCrae, and Ellis. Even Burroughs ows something to Mr. McInerney. My only problem with this one book? It was too short and should have been a 400 page novel. It's rare you can say this about a book, but in this case, it's true.

Brightly lit, 07 Mar 2007
"Here you go again. All messed up and no place to go."

That line sets the tone for "Bright Lights, Big City." Jay McInerney's bestselling debut stands above other urban-angst novels of the time, which tended to go with shock value. Instead, McInerney experimented with second-person narratives and a vision of a fragmented, coke-dusted New York.

"You" are a young man living in New York, and wife Amanda has recently left you for a French photographer she met on a modelling shoot. Understandably you are depressed and unhappy, and the loss of Amanda haunts your moods, especially when her lawyer urges you to sue her for "sexual abandonment," even though you don't want a divorce.

By day, you work in the fact-checking department of a prestigious magazine, where your malignant boss is getting tired of you. By night, you halfheartedly prowl clubs with your pal Tad, doing drugs and meeting women you care nothing for. Will you be able to move past your problems and become happy again?

Consider that summary a little slice of what "Bright Lights, Big City" sounds like -- the reader is the main character, which allows the reader to slip into another's skin for a brief time. Second-person narratives are often annoying, but McInerney's style is so starkly compelling that the little narrative trick pays off.

The New York of "Bright Lights, Big City" is basically a big, glitzy, hollow place, but still strangely appealing. And McInerney adds splinters of reality here and there, like the tattooed girl and Coma Baby, which add to the gritty you-are-there feel of the novel itself. His dark sense of humour comes out in "your" thoughts: "your" boss resembles "one of those ageless disciplinarians who believe that little boys are evil and little girls frivolous, that an idle mind is the devil's playground."

And while many trendy novels of the time relied on shock value and obnoxious characters, McInerney keeps it low-key. The young man is likable and sympathetic, despite his tendency towards self-pity. And the people around him -- the self-absorbed Amanda, likable Tad and nasty "Clingwrap" -- seem surprisingly realistic, as well as the minor people who flit in and out of our hero's vision.

"Bright Lights, Big City" has gained a reputation as a trendy urban novel of the 1980s. Too bad. Though the trendiness has worn off, McInerney's style and story are still worth reading.

a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.

A superb novel to read, and then re-read.


Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel.

As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!

A bit disappointing, 06 Nov 2008
After `Brightness Falls' (I read it years ago and liked it), `The Good Life' is a sort of sequel for some of the characters previously depicted: we find Russell and Corrine Callaway, Luke and Sasha McGavock and their respective families.

New York's Upper East Side wealthy society is the main background. Then the 9/11 tragedy strikes and life changes. Feeling shocked -they both lose a friend in the wreckage-, lost and adrift like everybody else, Luke and Corrine meet by chance at Ground Zero, where they are both helping out. Before 9/11, they both had unresolved issues at home, and now, incredibility ensues for them as they slowly but inexorably fall in love amidst the ruins. They try to deal with the emotional turmoil and tormented longing they both feel. This book is primarily the story of their escalating love and the conflicts that this generates in their mind and soul, the concern for their family a major issue.

Well, I believe that the main concept of this book is good but it still failed to engage me in full. Overly descriptive at times, the reading was often dragging. In short, may I say it, a bit boring. No, not up to (my) standard. My true vote would be 2 and ½ stars, but I concede the other half as I have enjoyed other books by Mr. McInerney and have appreciated him as a writer, especially where characterization is concerned.


Love and death, 17 Jul 2008
I've read McInerney's "Brightness Falls" twice, and greatly enjoyed its portrayal of a specific historical event (the stock market crash of 1987) and its impact on Russell and Corrine, a stylish, likeable but flawed couple, and their friends and life in Manhattan. In this book, he places them in the path of an even bigger event, and traces out their trajectories as their lives are shattered and remodelled in the wake of September 11. He brings back a few other characters from the earlier book, but also introduces some new ones - retired investment banker Luke, his socialite wife Sasha and their unstable teenaged daughter Ashley.

It's not hard to guess what the role of Luke is going to turn out to be as he stumbles up West Broadway, away from the nightmare of ash, smoke and death, and encounters Corrine, who offers him "a bottle of Evian" (even in moments of crisis, McInerney's knack for product placement doesn't falter). And, from that point onwards, the event fades into the background as we concentrate on their relationship. On the whole, this is probably a wise move, since writing more directly about the cataclysm and its aftermath is probably too challenging to pull off convincingly.

And McInerney deftly traces out the themes of desire, betrayal, duty and fidelity in a way that's thoroughly engrossing, particularly when he gives us Corrine's point of view. Only at the very end does he bring the story full circle with an elegaic connection between the way in which this all started, and the way it ends.


Worth a read, 22 Aug 2007
This is the first McInerney work that I have read and indeed the first novel I have read in some time, having given myself over to crosswords, su doku and the like.
I very much enjoyed the book. The scene is NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, so if you like modern American literature, I should imagine you will like it very much.
I am now reading Brightness Falls, which follows two of the main characters back in the early 80's, also in NYC.
Overall, I would definitley recommend this.

The Good Life, 07 Apr 2006
This is a wonderful sequel to Brightness Falls. It gives insight into how New Yorkers reacted to 9/11, as well as raising the larger question as to how life should be lived. The characters are beautifully drawn and observed, and the writing seemingly effortless. I thoroughly recommend this novel. Fans will not be disappointed and new readers will be enthralled.

Mesmerising, 21 Mar 2006
In this tale of love and infidelity in the aftermath of 9/11, fashionable Manhattanites Corrine Calloway and Luke McGavock embark on an adulterous affair and are forced to confront painful questions of familial responsibility, personal fulfilment and the need for social affirmation.

Told with a characteristic light touch, in prose that is funny, poignant and always utterly compelling, the novel poses the ultimate question: In the shadow of death, what is the essence of the good life?

This weighty topic is something of a departure for McInerney, who is best known for his mordant social satire of the rich and famous. But he carries off the task with extraordinary aplomb. While his eye for ironic detail is as keen as ever, he proves that he has matured to a storyteller of the highest order, capable of conveying the magnificence, tragedy and absurdity of the human condition. A masterpiece.

Changed my opinion on this style of writing., 06 May 2006
Once upon a time this kind of book would have hacked me off to extent that I'd want to call the author and scream murder at him. Spoilt rich kids moaning about their problems while poncing around in designer clothes, doing fasionable drugs, and eating at restaurants where a meal costs about the same price as the average working class man's weekly wage, never appealed to me. But I don't know, somehow this book as won me over. There's great parts of this book I can kind of relate to and I can empathise with characters (as rich and as shallow as they are). The great thing though is that no matter what back ground you come from you'll know people who are like these characters. This book is funny and true to life in many parts and I recommend it.

If you like the genre..., 30 Sep 2003
This is another offering from one of the Gen X gang - someone I drifted into after I had run out of Douglas Coupland - and it ticks the same boxes - disillusioned twenty-somethings with pretty relaxed attitudes towards drugs and sex being the main one.
This is done nicely, however, using the first person to carry the narrative at a nice pace. Personally, I'm never sure about males writing through female narrators, but here it works flawlessly, and the character is so real it is easy to be drawn in and read the story as an autobiography - a feat in itself. There are also plenty of occasions where the reader can see the pothole before the narrator falls into it, which again draws you in.
In short, this isn't rocket science, but it's a really good read, with strong characters and a real energy to it - I finished it in 3 or 4 days without noticing. If you like the genre, this is a good example

Ace, 10 Apr 2001
Did any of you notice that in American Psycho, Patrick Bateman meets Alison and attacks her? These two writers (McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis) cross reference each other all over the place. Try reading both.

An amazingly funny book with one liners you'll keep on using, 06 Nov 2000
I have to say this book is brilliant. Written from Alison's, the main characters' point of view. Its smart, cynical and profoundly sad in parts. Its just so amazing that its written by a man who by the way is the most convincing woman! Alison is spoilt insecure, manipulative, vain and unfortunately damaged in a way rich kids can only be. Not a book to read whilst on public transport unless you get your kicks from laughing uncontrollably in front of total strangers who know that getting on a bus is a surefire way to meet the weirdest of the weird. Buy & Enjoy, I did

A fulfilling, substantial read, 01 Jun 2008
If, like me, you were young in the loadsamoney late 80s, then this book will bring back memories and confirm all your suscpicions about 'the beautiful people'.

This is not a quick read: it could not be done in one sitting by even the fastest speed readers. However, part of the pleasure of this book is the depth with which all the characters are drawn and the mounting tension as things reach breaking point in all aspects of life.

Brightness Falls but Brilliance Rises, 18 Jun 2002
This, rather than his more epic but also more flawed Last Of The Savages, is McInerney's closest and most successful stab at the great American novel. Beautifully structured, perfectly characterised with passages of writing at once humorous and heartbreaking, the novel manges to be as epic in scope as its New York setting yet as intimate and compelling as the marriage it portrays. The only real comparison to do it justice is Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night, another novel that succeeded in telling us all about a time and a place at a particular period through telling us about two people and their strange and yet ultimately sustaining love. Because the author is rightly seen as a humourist it is easy to forget that that few modern writers can cast an eye on places and people at once sharply objective and wryly compassionate and it is also forgotten what a fine writer McInerney can be, something he demonstrates amply and consistently in Brighntess Falls. A fine romance, a lovesong to a city and an era passed, a surprising portrait of what marrigage is and does, a tender social satire and something like a modern classic, I would highly recommnend this underated book.

The Dark is Rising, 26 May 2002
After the wit and brevity of Bright Lights..., Story of My Life and Ransom, Brightness Falls is McInerney's effortful biggie, 400+ pages and witty rather than comic. It covers a year in the life of husband and wife Russell and Corrine Calloway. He's a publisher and she's a stock dealer, and their marriage will pretty soon be in trouble. As the action takes place in the year to October 1987, you can probably guess where we're heading. Yes, it's an historical novel (although he wrote it contemporaneously) with all the prerequisites of 80s Manhattan life, down to and including a big disease with a little name.

Plotwise, even the blurb finds it difficult to make the book sound interesting, feebly tailing off with a Robert Goddard-esque "None of them would ever be the same again..." Because the plot itself wouldn't drive you wild with desire, unless you like to read about management buyouts and corporate shafting. It starts off weakly too, with that most dangerous of set pieces, the dinner party, so the author can introduce lots of characters at once. (The disappointing Gosford Park, the careful will recall, was one big dinner party scene.) But it settles down quite quickly and once he entered the mind of Corrine in chapter 3, I was hooked. The book then trundles on for 400 agreeable pages, with everyone suffering minor setbacks but nothing too serious - they are the beautiful people, after all - even the writer who goes cold turkey in a rehab clinic seems to take it all with insouciance and a dry wit. (Up to a point.)

Where Brightness Falls succeeds best, though, is in making you think that this is a retelling of some archetypal story that you already knew. "Ah yes," you find yourself thinking throughout, "this is that book about the yuppies who lose it all..." It almost makes you believe that Brightness Falls is the original myth - if it hadn't been for Bonfire of the Vanities... And readers of McInerney's last novel Model Behaviour may recognise a plot point, lifted wholesale from Brightness Falls and redelivered (rather more successfully, I might add) in humorous context. A book, then, that is in both senses of the word, truly *economic.*

I LOVE this book!, 04 Mar 2002
I think very carefully before I give a book five stars, but I found this story so captivating and well-written, that in my opinion, it deserves it!

The story follows the lives of a young married couple living in New York. It tells the highs and the lows of their life together, and their working lives, and documents the pressures they are under, and the effect is has on their marriage.

Like Bonfire of the Vanities, what appeals to me most about this book is that it shows us a whole cross-section of New York life, from the millionaires with their chic apartments and holiday homes, to the homeless in their shanty town in the Lower East Side. Manhattan as a backdrop is an essential part of the story.

The characters are believable and likeable, and although the story concentrates on two main people, the surrounding characters are well developed too.

Jay McInerney has excelled himself, producing a novel that is hard to put down. I highly recommend this book to both the casual reader, and anyone who has an interest in Sociology or Urban Geography.

Another reader from UK, 25 Jan 2001
Simply the best piece of fiction I have ever read, even better than Bright Lights and Last of the Savages! I am shocked to see a one star rating for this superb story.

Getting away from it all?, 15 Mar 2002
Have you ever thought that if you just got rid of everything, packed your backpack and went away somewhere far from here, you might be able to make sense of your life? Find some deeper meaning in a foreign culture?

You can run but you can NEVER hide!

In my opinion, a book which should ring true to the so-called X- and Y-generation. It deals with troubled family relations, growing up and trying to find a sense of purpose in this 'material world'.

I read this book after having previously read Model Behaviour and Story Of My Life; which both were cynical and witty in that Douglas Coupland-way - but even fluffier and more easily read.

Although I enjoyed the two previous books, I think Ransom is a much more weighty and serious book. You will find some backbreaking humour in this one too, but the main story line is not in any way reliant upon these puns.

So, I guess what I am trying to tell you is:
read this book!

It's well worth tracking down., 27 May 2000
This is the second novel by Jay McInerney, which is not yet published in the UK.

Having read all McInerney's other novels it comes as a surprise that this one is not set amongst the bright lights of New York. This is the story of Ransom, who has been living in Kyoto after travelling in Asia. It soon becomes obvious that he is trying to purge himself of a terrible event that happened on his travels. He takes up karate, lives a disciplined life, with only a few ex-pats for friends.

McInerney carefully draws the reader into the plot, gradually unfolding the drama from Ramon's past and present. Although his novels are usually set amongst the smart set, who it is often difficult to have any feelings for, that is not the case for the main character in this novel. I'm tempted to say the Ransom is one of the best, fully rounded characters McInerney has created. There is a supprising ending and I feel that this is one of his best novels, and would come as a pleasant surprise to those who only know "Bright Lights, Big City" and "The Story of My Success". It's well worth tracking down and baffling why it's the only one of the authors novels yet to be published in the UK.

A novel desperately in want of a plot, 18 May 1999
Mawkish yet self-deprecating, boring yet interesting, ineffectual yet captivating. This novel fits all categories. I could not shake off a feeling of disbelief at most of the side-plots, which, unfortunately, are so convoluted that they tend to obscure the main plot, if indeed there is one ... of which I am not sure. Ultimately, this is a novel as pointless as the protagonist's untimely demise. And yet, strangely enough, McInerney's humor and style do make it an amusing read. Just so long you ignore the fact that everything about this novel attempts to proclaim a vast depth of significance - but significance, and any real knowledge about Japan, are the very elements the reader is unlikely to find.

Excellent, Better than Bright Lights,Big City., 25 Nov 1998
An excellent book if you like the idea of honour, tradition and a code of conduct that really means something. But why did it have to happen. Their are too many De-Vito's in the world and not enough Ransom-San's.

Hard-faced, hard-edged, hard luck, 30 Aug 1998
Strange, but as a story goes McInerney's insight into one young white American's alienation in Japan should have been a blinder, a corker...but it missed somehwat and became nothing more than jumped-up sci-fi in the East. None-the-less, I am slightly baffled that no other reviewer has seen fit to note one of the most breathtaking and surprising finales in modern writing. So much so, it saves the book from the chop.

Clever, sly, funny and tender., 04 Jul 2008
I bought this yesterday at a bookshop clearance having never before heard of the author. I was attracted by the subject matter (even though I was too old to be part of the 80s scene described) and the racy, witty style of writing which flows so effortlessly - a tribute to the writer's intellect. The other reviewers have done a much better job than I could but I just wanted to say the book was so good that I read it from start to finish in one sitting and have just ordered three more. I am still tittering over the tiny Bolivian soldiers who need Bolivian Marching Powder and there's quite a lot of laugh-out-loud humour in this book.

A masterpiece, 01 Jun 2008
Any author that can say all he wants to say so succinctly and absorbingly has to be worth a read.

This book might be short, but it is totally satisfying. The story may be as unhealthy as kebab and chips after a night on the town, but the reader is left feeling as replete as if they had eaten a 3 Michelin starred meal.

The very best, 06 Mar 2008
This book is the very best kind of literature, a small story that encompasses the whole modern human condition. Very powerful themes told in a painfully human and humorous way. This is the Catcher in the Rye for our time. In my top ten books of all time.

Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel, 29 Nov 2007
I read this literally the moment it came out decades ago. And now I've revisited it once more. This is not a large book but it packs a punch and is funny and gripping in its own way. My particular copy is the American version with a view of the World Trade Centers on the cover, in the background--talk about a book set in the past. But that's why I have so taken to it again; it is a time capsule of New York, the way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or the way the book "The Devil Wear Prada" is. And those books have more in common with "Bright Lights" than just insane bosses and drug and social problems. Few novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering in the way for the works of Palahniuk, Sedaris, McCrae, and Ellis. Even Burroughs ows something to Mr. McInerney. My only problem with this one book? It was too short and should have been a 400 page novel. It's rare you can say this about a book, but in this case, it's true.

Brightly lit, 07 Mar 2007
"Here you go again. All messed up and no place to go."

That line sets the tone for "Bright Lights, Big City." Jay McInerney's bestselling debut stands above other urban-angst novels of the time, which tended to go with shock value. Instead, McInerney experimented with second-person narratives and a vision of a fragmented, coke-dusted New York.

"You" are a young man living in New York, and wife Amanda has recently left you for a French photographer she met on a modelling shoot. Understandably you are depressed and unhappy, and the loss of Amanda haunts your moods, especially when her lawyer urges you to sue her for "sexual abandonment," even though you don't want a divorce.

By day, you work in the fact-checking department of a prestigious magazine, where your malignant boss is getting tired of you. By night, you halfheartedly prowl clubs with your pal Tad, doing drugs and meeting women you care nothing for. Will you be able to move past your problems and become happy again?

Consider that summary a little slice of what "Bright Lights, Big City" sounds like -- the reader is the main character, which allows the reader to slip into another's skin for a brief time. Second-person narratives are often annoying, but McInerney's style is so starkly compelling that the little narrative trick pays off.

The New York of "Bright Lights, Big City" is basically a big, glitzy, hollow place, but still strangely appealing. And McInerney adds splinters of reality here and there, like the tattooed girl and Coma Baby, which add to the gritty you-are-there feel of the novel itself. His dark sense of humour comes out in "your" thoughts: "your" boss resembles "one of those ageless disciplinarians who believe that little boys are evil and little girls frivolous, that an idle mind is the devil's playground."

And while many trendy novels of the time relied on shock value and obnoxious characters, McInerney keeps it low-key. The young man is likable and sympathetic, despite his tendency towards self-pity. And the people around him -- the self-absorbed Amanda, likable Tad and nasty "Clingwrap" -- seem surprisingly realistic, as well as the minor people who flit in and out of our hero's vision.

"Bright Lights, Big City" has gained a reputation as a trendy urban novel of the 1980s. Too bad. Though the trendiness has worn off, McInerney's style and story are still worth reading.

a sublime Jazz era novel, 19 Jan 2007
One of the finest American authors I have read; as suggested, this novel uses a 'cut and paste' technique, where you don't follow every step of the major character. The novel follows the interwoven lives of several characters going through the 1920's New York scene. Dos Passos gets you inside the head of the main character, but moves you forward, occasionally leaving the action behind.

A superb novel to read, and then re-read.


Worth persevering with..., 28 Feb 2002
Don Passos uses techniques borrowed from the cinema to examine the lives of many different people living in New York. His aim is clear - this novel is intended to provide a portrait of 1920's New York society as a whole rather than portray the life of individuals. This he does well, but maybe I wasn't paying enough attention when I started to read this book - I quickly became confused with the characters - how they related to each other, and their own stories within the novel.

As a big fan of Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe), and a Human Geographer, I am keen to read anything relating to New York society. But I found this 'hard-going.' I am glad I persevered, as things did become clearer towards the end. Perhaps next time I'll read it more carefully from the beginning!

A bit disappointing, 06 Nov 2008
After `Brightness Falls' (I read it years ago and liked it), `The Good Life' is a sort of sequel for some of the characters previously depicted: we find Russell and Corrine Callaway, Luke and Sasha McGavock and their respective families.

New York's Upper East Side wealthy society is the main background. Then the 9/11 tragedy strikes and life changes. Feeling shocked -they both lose a friend in the wreckage-, lost and adrift like everybody else, Luke and Corrine meet by chance at Ground Zero, where they are both helping out. Before 9/11, they both had unresolved issues at home, and now, incredibility ensues for them as they slowly but inexorably fall in love amidst the ruins. They try to deal with the emotional turmoil and tormented longing they both feel. This book is primarily the story of their escalating love and the conflicts that this generates in their mind and soul, the concern for their family a major issue.

Well, I believe that the main concept of this book is good but it still failed to engage me in full. Overly descriptive at times, the reading was often dragging. In short, may I say it, a bit boring. No, not up to (my) standard. My true vote would be 2 and ½ stars, but I concede the other half as I have enjoyed other books by Mr. McInerney and have appreciated him as a writer, especially where characterization is concerned.


Love and death, 17 Jul 2008
I've read McInerney's "Brightness Falls" twice, and greatly enjoyed its portrayal of a specific historical event (the stock market crash of 1987) and its impact on Russell and Corrine, a stylish, likeable but flawed couple, and their friends and life in Manhattan. In this book, he places them in the path of an even bigger event, and traces out their trajectories as their lives are shattered and remodelled in the wake of September 11. He brings back a few other characters from the earlier book, but also introduces some new ones - retired investment banker Luke, his socialite wife Sasha and their unstable teenaged daughter Ashley.

It's not hard to guess what the role of Luke is going to turn out to be as he stumbles up West Broadway, away from the nightmare of ash, smoke and death, and encounters Corrine, who offers him "a bottle of Evian" (even in moments of crisis, McInerney's knack for product placement doesn't falter). And, from that point onwards, the event fades into the background as we concentrate on their relationship. On the whole, this is probably a wise move, since writing more directly about the cataclysm and its aftermath is probably too challenging to pull off convincingly.

And McInerney deftly traces out the themes of desire, betrayal, duty and fidelity in a way that's thoroughly engrossing, particularly when he gives us Corrine's point of view. Only at the very end does he bring the story full circle with an elegaic connection between the way in which this all started, and the way it ends.


Worth a read, 22 Aug 2007
This is the first McInerney work that I have read and indeed the first novel I have read in some time, having given myself over to crosswords, su doku and the like.
I very much enjoyed the book. The scene is NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, so if you like modern American literature, I should imagine you will like it very much.
I am now reading Brightness Falls, which follows two of the main characters back in the early 80's, also in NYC.
Overall, I would definitley recommend this.

The Good Life, 07 Apr 2006
This is a wonderful sequel to Brightness Falls. It gives insight into how New Yorkers reacted to 9/11, as well as raising the larger question as to how life should be lived. The characters are beautifully drawn and observed, and the writing seemingly effortless. I thoroughly recommend this novel. Fans will not be disappointed and new readers will be enthralled.

Mesmerising, 21 Mar 2006
In this tale of love and infidelity in the aftermath of 9/11, fashionable Manhattanites Corrine Calloway and Luke McGavock embark on an adulterous affair and are forced to confront painful questions of familial responsibility, personal fulfilment and the need for social affirmation.

Told with a characteristic light touch, in prose that is funny, poignant and always utterly compelling, the novel poses the ultimate question: In the shadow of death, what is the essence of the good life?

This weighty topic is something of a departure for McInerney, who is best known for his mordant social satire of the rich and famous. But he carries off the task with extraordinary aplomb. While his eye for ironic detail is as keen as ever, he proves that he has matured to a storyteller of the highest order, capable of conveying the magnificence, tragedy and absurdity of the human condition. A masterpiece.

Changed my opinion on this style of writing., 06 May 2006
Once upon a time this kind of book would have hacked me off to extent that I'd want to call the author and scream murder at him. Spoilt rich kids moaning about their problems while poncing around in designer clothes, doing fasionable drugs, and eating at restaurants where a meal costs about the same price as the average working class man's weekly wage, never appealed to me. But I don't know, somehow this book as won me over. There's great parts of this book I can kind of relate to and I can empathise with characters (as rich and as shallow as they are). The great thing though is that no matter what back ground you come from you'll know people who are like these characters. This book is funny and true to life in many parts and I recommend it.

If you like the genre..., 30 Sep 2003
This is another offering from one of the Gen X gang - someone I drifted into after I had run out of Douglas Coupland - and it ticks the same boxes - disillusioned twenty-somethings with pretty relaxed attitudes towards drugs and sex being the main one.
This is done nicely, however, using the first person to carry the narrative at a nice pace. Personally, I'm never sure about males writing through female narrators, but here it works flawlessly, and the character is so real it is easy to be drawn in and read the story as an autobiography - a feat in itself. There are also plenty of occasions where the reader can see the pothole before the narrator falls into it, which again draws you in.
In short, this isn't rocket science, but it's a really good read, with strong characters and a real energy to it - I finished it in 3 or 4 days without noticing. If you like the genre, this is a good example

Ace, 10 Apr 2001
Did any of you notice that in American Psycho, Patrick Bateman meets Alison and attacks her? These two writers (McInerney and Bret Easton Ellis) cross reference each other all over the place. Try reading both.

An amazingly funny book with one liners you'll keep on using, 06 Nov 2000
I have to say this book is brilliant. Written from Alison's, the main characters' point of view. Its smart, cynical and profoundly sad in parts. Its just so amazing that its written by a man who by the way is the most convincing woman! Alison is spoilt insecure, manipulative, vain and unfortunately damaged in a way rich kids can only be. Not a book to read whilst on public transport unless you get your kicks from laughing uncontrollably in front of total strangers who know that getting on a bus is a surefire way to meet the weirdest of the weird. Buy & Enjoy, I did

A fulfilling, substantial read, 01 Jun 2008
If, like me, you were young in the loadsamoney late 80s, then this book will bring back memories and confirm all your suscpicions about 'the beautiful people'.

This is not a quick read: it could not be done in one sitting by even the fastest speed readers. However, part of the pleasure of this book is the depth with which all the characters are drawn and the mounting tension as things reach breaking point in all aspects of life.

Brightness Falls but Brilliance Rises, 18 Jun 2002
This, rather than his more epic but also more flawed Last Of The Savages, is McInerney's closest and most successful stab at the great American novel. Beautifully structured, perfectly characterised with passages of writing at once humorous and heartbreaking, the novel manges to be as epic in scope as its New York setting yet as intimate and compelling as the marriage it portrays. The only real comparison to do it justice is Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night, another novel that succeeded in telling us all about a time and a place at a particular period through telling us about two people and their strange and yet ultimately sustaining love. Because the author is rightly seen as a humourist it is easy to forget that that few modern writers can cast an eye on places and people at once sharply objective and wryly compassionate and it is also forgotten what a fine writer McInerney can be, something he demonstrates amply and consistently in Brighntess Falls. A fine romance, a lovesong to a city and an era passed, a surprising portrait of what marrigage is and does, a tender social satire and something like a modern classic, I would highly recommnend this underated book.

The Dark is Rising, 26 May 2002
After the wit and brevity of Bright Lights..., Story of My Life and Ransom, Brightness Falls is McInerney's effortful biggie, 400+ pages and witty rather than comic. It covers a year in the life of husband and wife Russell and Corrine Calloway. He's a publisher and she's a stock dealer, and their marriage will pretty soon be in trouble. As the action takes place in the year to October 1987, you can probably guess where we're heading. Yes, it's an historical novel (although he wrote it contemporaneously) with all the prerequisites of 80s Manhattan life, down to and including a big disease with a little name.

Plotwise, even the blurb finds it difficult to make the book sound interesting, feebly tailing off with a Robert Goddard-esque "None of them would ever be the same again..." Because the plot itself wouldn't drive you wild with desire, unless you like to read about management buyouts and corporate shafting. It starts off weakly too, with that most dangerous of set pieces, the dinner party, so the author can introduce lots of characters at once. (The disappointing Gosford Park, the careful will recall, was one big dinner party scene.) But it settles down quite quickly and once he entered the mind of Corrine in chapter 3, I was hooked. The book then trundles on for 400 agreeable pages, with everyone suffering minor setbacks but nothing too serious - they are the beautiful people, after all - even the writer who goes cold turkey in a rehab clinic seems to take it all with insouciance and a dry wit. (Up to a point.)

Where Brightness Falls succeeds best, though, is in making you think that this is a retelling of some archetypal story that you already knew. "Ah yes," you find yourself thinking throughout, "this is that book about the yuppies who lose it all..." It almost makes you believe that Brightness Falls is the original myth - if it hadn't been for Bonfire of the Vanities... And readers of McInerney's last novel Model Behaviour may recognise a plot point, lifted wholesale from Brightness Falls and redelivered (rather more successfully, I might add) in humorous context. A book, then, that is in both senses of the word, truly *economic.*

I LOVE this book!, 04 Mar 2002
I think very carefully before I give a book five stars, but I found this story so captivating and well-written, that in my opinion, it deserves it!

The story follows the lives of a young married couple living in New York. It tells the highs and the lows of their life together, and their working lives, and documents the pressures they are under, and the effect is has on their marriage.

Like Bonfire of the Vanities, what appeals to me most about this book is that it shows us a whole cross-section of New York life, from the millionaires with their chic apartments and holiday homes, to the homeless in their shanty town in the Lower East Side. Manhattan as a backdrop is an essential part of the story.

The characters are believable and likeable, and although the story concentrates on two main people, the surrounding characters are well developed too.

Jay McInerney has excelled himself, producing a novel that is hard to put down. I highly recommend this book to both the casual reader, and anyone who has an interest in Sociology or Urban Geography.

Another reader from UK, 25 Jan 2001
Simply the best piece of fiction I have ever read, even better than Bright Lights and Last of the Savages! I am shocked to see a one star rating for this superb story.

Getting away from it all?, 15 Mar 2002
Have you ever thought that if you just got rid of everything, packed your backpack and went away somewhere far from here, you might be able to make sense of your life? Find some deeper meaning in a foreign culture?

You can run but you can NEVER hide!

In my opinion, a book which should ring true to the so-called X- and Y-generation. It deals with troubled family relations, growing up and trying to find a sense of purpose in this 'material world'.

I read this book after having previously read Model Behaviour and Story Of My Life; which both were cynical and witty in that Douglas Coupland-way - but even fluffier and more easily read.