You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might become clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder. Then again, it might not. So begins our nameless hero's trawl through the brightly lit streets of Manhattan, sampling all this wonderland has to offer yet suspecting that tomorrow's hangover may be caused by more than simple excess. "Bright Lights, Big City" is an acclaimed classic which marked Jay McInerney as one of the major writers of our time.
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Review
`A rambunctious, deadly funny novel that goes for the right mark -
the human heart' -- Raymond Carver
`McInerney earns his place in literary history with Bright Lights,
Big City, the comic morality tale' -- Guardian
`Probably the best book ever written about being young, about
doing drugs and about music' -- Tony Parsons, Daily Express
`The seminal novel of the 1980s'
-- New York Times
the human heart' -- Raymond Carver
`McInerney earns his place in literary history with Bright Lights,
Big City, the comic morality tale' -- Guardian
`Probably the best book ever written about being young, about
doing drugs and about music' -- Tony Parsons, Daily Express
`The seminal novel of the 1980s'
-- New York Times
From the Publisher
Hailed as one of the classic New York novels of the 80s,
alongside Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, Slaves of New York by Tama
Janowitz and The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolff
alongside Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis, Slaves of New York by Tama
Janowitz and The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolff
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"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.
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.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By craftyBison
Format:Paperback
It's difficult to write about what Bright Lights, Big City is REALLY about without giving away a major plot point, so I won't. But I'm incredulous that no one yet seems to have made the comparison with J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. The protagonist here is essentially an updated, older Holden Caulfield in an updated, older New York. In the same way that Allie's death was really the key to what was happening in Catcher, a past event that isn't mentioned until the last quarter of Bright Lights is even more so the key to understanding the book.
This novel has been woefully mischaracterised as an ode to the high-life 1980s, probably due to its ill-advised title. It's not American Psycho. It's not even about the rich; the protagonist works on a magazine, as a fact-checker. By no means does he live the high life. By no means is this a book "about being young, about doing drugs and about music", as the cover quote by Tony Parsons indicates with alarming inaccuracy. This is a book about a guy whose life has crumbled apart, and you navigate through a series of red herrings before at last you discover the real, and heartbreaking, reason.
It's Holden Caulfield for the 1980s.
This novel has been woefully mischaracterised as an ode to the high-life 1980s, probably due to its ill-advised title. It's not American Psycho. It's not even about the rich; the protagonist works on a magazine, as a fact-checker. By no means does he live the high life. By no means is this a book "about being young, about doing drugs and about music", as the cover quote by Tony Parsons indicates with alarming inaccuracy. This is a book about a guy whose life has crumbled apart, and you navigate through a series of red herrings before at last you discover the real, and heartbreaking, reason.
It's Holden Caulfield for the 1980s.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Benjamin
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
You are in your early twenties and living in Manhattan, it's 1980s and you work for a prestigious magazine proud of its record for factual accuracy, and you work in the department responsible for checking those facts, The Department of Factual Verification. But you aspire to writing fiction and disdain you work, and that combined with your hedonistic lifestyle results in you not always coming up to par, so your boss has it in for you. To add to your troubles your wife has left you, but you don't tell anyone other than your friend Tad Allagash, the one who leads you in your life of pleasure seeking and frequent use of drugs.
Written unusually in the second person, McInerney's first novel, which caused a stir on its firs publication, is a funny and observant account of a young man whose life is getting out of control and running down hill, a young man who refuses all offers of help to get him back on track. The problem with that is that I find it hard to empathise with the character, and if I am going to enjoy a novel that is a prerequisite. "You" are a nice enough chap, but you have too many faults that I find you hard to relate to, and very soon hard to care about, and that is important if I am really going to get involved in your story. Of course this is also a very funny account, probably much funnier than I found it to be, perhaps I tend to read too earnestly, maybe I should get someone else to read it aloud to me to appreciate the humour.
Novels written in the second person are rare, and after reading this I am not surprised, McInerney undoubtedly pulls it off, yet at the same time the constant you-you-you can grate a little. I did not enjoy this as I had hoped, I came to it after having read Nick Earl's World of chickens and having noted Earl's high praise for it (and having thorouglhy enjoyed Earl's writing thought his recommendation worth following). Some time ago I read and truly enjoyed McInerney's The Last of the Savages so had high hopes for Bright Lights . . . While I am glad to have read it, I do not feel it came quite up to expectations, nonetheless I would recommend giving it a go, it only for its rare use of the second person.
(I read his in the Bloomsbury Classics hardback edition, pub 1992, it is worth mentioning that it is a very small format edition, a pocket sized book.)
Written unusually in the second person, McInerney's first novel, which caused a stir on its firs publication, is a funny and observant account of a young man whose life is getting out of control and running down hill, a young man who refuses all offers of help to get him back on track. The problem with that is that I find it hard to empathise with the character, and if I am going to enjoy a novel that is a prerequisite. "You" are a nice enough chap, but you have too many faults that I find you hard to relate to, and very soon hard to care about, and that is important if I am really going to get involved in your story. Of course this is also a very funny account, probably much funnier than I found it to be, perhaps I tend to read too earnestly, maybe I should get someone else to read it aloud to me to appreciate the humour.
Novels written in the second person are rare, and after reading this I am not surprised, McInerney undoubtedly pulls it off, yet at the same time the constant you-you-you can grate a little. I did not enjoy this as I had hoped, I came to it after having read Nick Earl's World of chickens and having noted Earl's high praise for it (and having thorouglhy enjoyed Earl's writing thought his recommendation worth following). Some time ago I read and truly enjoyed McInerney's The Last of the Savages so had high hopes for Bright Lights . . . While I am glad to have read it, I do not feel it came quite up to expectations, nonetheless I would recommend giving it a go, it only for its rare use of the second person.
(I read his in the Bloomsbury Classics hardback edition, pub 1992, it is worth mentioning that it is a very small format edition, a pocket sized book.)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book For 20 Somethings
Book for 20 somethings that encourages them to give up the silly stuff and get a life - much to be admired here.
Published 2 days ago by D. Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book...
This is not a huge book but what it lack in length it makes up for in quality and impact. Not many novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering... Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Craven
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark and interesting
A very interesting read. Dark incite in a drug fuelled 80's New York. I really enjoyed reading this book. Highly recommended.
Published 1 month ago by Julie
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bright Lights Big City
Fantastic, read this years ago (before they turned it into a movie) still love it.
Jay McInerney's writing is fantastic, also love Last Of The Savages. Read more
Jay McInerney's writing is fantastic, also love Last Of The Savages. Read more
Published 8 months ago by telly addict
2.0 out of 5 stars
Another superficial novel
I must admit that reading negative reviews can be very dull and say more about the writer than the object of investigation. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Claus Winther Strom
1.0 out of 5 stars
High contender in being one of the worst book's I've ever read.
Honestly this is one of the worse books I've ever read. I was ready to put it down half way through but I kept on reading in hope that it would pick up or something would happen... Read more
Published on 29 Mar 2011 by Kelsey
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clever, sly, funny and tender.
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... Read more
Published on 5 July 2008 by Zola fan
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterpiece
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. Read more
This book might be short, but it is totally satisfying. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2008 by Dr. J. S. E. Sullivan-lyons
5.0 out of 5 stars
The very best
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. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2008 by Mr. F. I. Dudaniec
4.0 out of 5 stars
Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel
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... Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2007 by James Monroe
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