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By: Kiera Cavern
Date: 10th Aug 05
Format: Book
Motivation: Good with a whiskey in the bath
WHAT
BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY
WHO
JAY MCINERNEY
STOCKS
AMAZON OR ON ORDER THROUGH DECENT BOOK STORES
HOW MUCH
UM… WE DON’T DO THAT MUCH RESEARCH
There is something so alluring about people who should have it all, but seem perilously close to losing it all instead. In BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY, Jay McInerney explores the fine line between the two, as it plays out in the cocaine fuelled underbelly of 1980s NYC.
Told in the second person, the novel explores the tragi-comic descent and arguable ascent of a young man who has become inextricably wound up in the fog of New York life. His model wife has left him and his job at a prestigious magazine is about to come to an end due to an incident with a feret. The question is, what or whom is he left with… if anything.
There are a number of reasons why BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY is a must read: it captures the mood of '80s Manhattan to perfection. It pits humanity against depravity. Humour against sadness. Dishonesty against sincerity, and one man against the nasty realisation that his life is a joke.