Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

Jun 07, 2016 Fabian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

So it remains to say, which one's better? This, or Bret Easton Ellis's smash literary debut, "Less Than Zero"? These two novels are comparable because they crystallized the 80's with style to spare. They both have that quality that makes a reader almost fanatically impatient for their next written work.

My opinion is that THIS ONE gets top prize. (Although Ellis's "Rules of Attraction" is better than both of these). The protagonist gets some help from the ever-elusive second person narrator treat ...more

flag 111 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2016 Glenn Russell rated it it was amazing

“Your brain at this moment is composed of brigades of tiny Bolivian soldiers. They are tired and muddy from their long march through the night. There are holes in their boots and they are hungry. They need to be fed. The need the Bolivian Marching Powder.” Quote from the opening scene of this 1984 Jay McInerney novel told in cool, hip, drug-hyped second person. But, alas, this is merely the surface.

Each time I read this book, I comprehend more clearly how the words on every page have sharp razo

“Your brain at this moment is composed of brigades of tiny Bolivian soldiers. They are tired and muddy from their long march through the night. There are holes in their boots and they are hungry. They need to be fed. The need the Bolivian Marching Powder.” Quote from the opening scene of this 1984 Jay McInerney novel told in cool, hip, drug-hyped second person. But, alas, this is merely the surface.

Each time I read this book, I comprehend more clearly how the words on every page have sharp razor-like edges that cut into the heart of the narrator. However, to say specifically why this is so would be to say too much since the more complete story of what the narrator is going through is not disclosed until the closing chapters.

Below are my comments coupled with one-line snappers from the novel’s main character, a 24-year old coke-snorting would-be writer working as a fact-checker for a New Yorker-like magazine and living in a downtown apartment by himself after Amanda, his fashion model wife, called telling him she isn’t coming back and he will be hearing from her lawyer to settle the divorce:

“The girl with the shaved head has a scar tattooed on her scalp. It looks like a long, sutured gash. You tell her it is very realistic. She takes this as a compliment and thanks you. You meant as opposed to romantic. “I could use one of those right over my heart,” you say.” ---------- The narrator’s words foreshadow how he really isn’t after the thrills of the hip scene but something emotionally deeper and much more personal. I can appreciate how many dislike the novel and the whining, distressed voice of the narrator since, in many respects, his emotional turmoil is similar to that other sensitive, distraught, whining 16-year old back in the late 1940s – Holden Caulfield in J. D. Salinger’s classic.

“It’s 10:58. You’ve worn out the line about the subway breaking down. Maybe tell Clara you stopped to take a free look at Kinky Karla and got bitten by her snake.” --------- Clara is the narrator’s boss at the fact finding department; Kinky Karla and her snake one of the thrills the old street hawkers hawk out on the street. Both of these worlds – the clock-driven, drab, humdrum office and the blaring girls-girls--girls sleaze – are exactly what the narrator in his current anguished state does not need.

“There was a cartoon you used to watch with a time-traveling turtle and a benevolent wizard. The turtle would journey back to say, the French revolution, inevitably getting in way over his head. At the last minute, when he was stretched out under the guillotine, he would cry out, “Help, Mr. Wizard!” And the wizard, on the other end of the time warp, would wave his wand and rescue the hapless turtle.” ---------- Ha! A common wish, particularly among young adults, to be saved from the need to do a 9-5 pressure-cooker job. All of my education for this? Mr. Wizard, please get me the hell out of here! Sorry, life isn’t a cartoon – you will have to find your own way out.

“You insert another piece of paper, again you type the date. At the left margin you type, “Dear Amanda,” but when you look at the paper it reads, “Dead Amanda.” Screw this. You are not going to commit any great literature tonight.” ---------- So telling. Writing fiction nearly always requires an emotional distance; when one is undergoing extreme personal upset, such as our novel’s narrator, it is next to impossible to move past drafting the first paragraph.

“Wade saunters in and stops in front of your desk. He looks at you and clicks his tongue. “What kind of flowers do you want on your grave? I already have the epitaph: He didn’t face facts.” -------- This exchange after the narrator, by his own admission, completely screwed up in performing his job. His refusal to face and deal with his life beyond the office gives an ironic twist to 'He didn’t face facts'.

“When you first came to the city you spent a night here with Amanda. You have friends to stay with but you wanted to spend that first night at the Plaza. . . . Your tenth-floor room was tiny and overlooked an airshaft; though you could not see the city out the window, you believed that it was spread out at your feet. The limousines around the entrances seemed like carriages, and you felt that someday one would wait for you. Today they put you in mind of carrion birds, and you cannot believe your dreams were so shallow. ---------- Such is the truth of the city: if you have money and are on the rise, the Big Apple is a dream come true; if you are penniless and on the skids, it quickly turns into a cold, cruel deathtrap.

This was Jay McInerney’s first novel. He went on to write a half a dozen more, but none having nearly the hype and fame as this one. Curiously, from what I gather, Jay has spent much of the last thirty years attempting to separate his personal identity from the identity of this novel’s narrator. Such is the power of literature. ...more

flag 105 likes · Like · see review

Jan 04, 2018 Orsodimondo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: americana

IL GIORNO COME SEMPRE SARÀ
Tu non sei esattamente il tipo di persona che ci si aspetterebbe di vedere in un posto come questo a quest’ora del mattino.

Questo è l’incipit, comincia proprio così.

description

Bright Lights, Big City – Le mille luci di New York.

E perché lui e il posto e l’ora del giorno non si accordano?
Perché a quell’ora, le 4 del mattino, lui dovrebbe essere a casa a dormire, la mattina dopo deve andare al lavoro. Sarà uno straccio per aver passato la notte in piedi. Averla passata sniffando coc ...more

flag 72 likes · Like · see review

Apr 26, 2013 Lisa Eckstein rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2010

You've been meaning to read BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY for years, ever since hearing that it's written in the second person. You were intrigued, understandably. Point of view in fiction has always been an area of interest, and you might be described as a sucker for narrative gimmicks.

While preparing for a trip to Manhattan, you entertained romantic fantasies of reading a novel set in New York during your stay. You forgot, as you always do, that you never manage to read while traveling, and that at ...more

flag 50 likes · Like · see review

Oct 07, 2014 Jonathan Ashleigh rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This book is one I believe everyone should read. The subject matter is poignant, still relevant and (given the subject matter) extremely clean. Along with many, this book seems to me a prequel to Bret Easton Ellis‘s take on hip New York. While finishing it, I considered starting it over from the beginning immediately but have decided to reread American Psycho first. Bright Lights, Big City is a fast read and I think it is worth your time.

flag 51 likes · Like · see review

Dec 06, 2007 Jessica rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommends it for: strangely sympathetic cokehead yuppies

Recommended to Jessica by: my dealer

Shelves: here-is-new-york, substance-related-disorders

Thanks to Bookface, you no longer get this book mixed up with American Psycho, and can now easily tell the difference between Bret Easton Ellis and Jay MacInerney. Good thing you cleared that right up before you embarrassed yourself at one of those writerly New York parties you're always getting invited to. It would've been awful to have spilled your drink on the wrong author, for the wrong reason.... whew!

This book is about how terrible people's lives were before the Internet was invented.

It is ...more

flag 45 likes · Like · see review

Nov 08, 2011 mark monday rated it did not like it

Shelves: time-to-come-of-age, world-of-insects, mnemonic-devices

perhaps the best things i can say about this one are that it perfectly captured a perfectly nauseating time period in the mid-80s and it certainly reinvigorated the use of second-person narrative with surprising elan; perhaps the worst thing i could say about this one is that It Drove Me Up The Wall With Its Pathetically Entitled Non-Entity Of A So-Called Protagonist And It Somehow Made It Okay To Be A Pretentious Whiny Twit And Nihilistic Fuck. well ok then. man i guess it's all about you mark, ...more

flag 43 likes · Like · see review

Aug 27, 2009 Rebecca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was almost tempted to give this five stars--an honor I've bestowed upon just two books all year. This book surprised me. Here was a character who, yes, snorts cocaine and passes out in bathrooms--but he has a conscience. The second-person narrative is effortless.

McInerney is a part of the "literary brat pack," so his work is lumped in along with Bret Easton Ellis's. I remember Less than Zero as a confusing jumble of drug-feuled ramblings about ex-girlfriends, overdoses, fast cars, and prostit ...more

flag 26 likes · Like · see review

Feb 09, 2009 John rated it really liked it

You decide to read this book because it was written in the second person. This is interesting to you. You've never read a book written in that manner, at least you can't remember if you have. This seems like a pretentious idea to you, but you are curious. You like the book more than you expected to. It isn't all that dated. Sure, lots of NYC landmarks have changed, but the gist is still the same. You identify with the main character. You decide that if you lived in NYC in 1984, this would probab ...more

flag 24 likes · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2016 Maciek rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-in-2016, reviewed

Published in 1984, Bright Lights, Big City is famous for being a novel narrated entirely in the second person; although it's neither the first or the only book to do that, somehow it became one of the better known examples of this technique. Apparently, the novel began its life as a short story Jay McInerney published in a literary magazine, and which he later expanded into a full novel.

Aside from the neat narrative trick, there is not much that one can say about the contents of the novel itself Published in 1984, Bright Lights, Big City is famous for being a novel narrated entirely in the second person; although it's neither the first or the only book to do that, somehow it became one of the better known examples of this technique. Apparently, the novel began its life as a short story Jay McInerney published in a literary magazine, and which he later expanded into a full novel.

Aside from the neat narrative trick, there is not much that one can say about the contents of the novel itself. The anonymous narrator, obviously based on McInerey himself, spends his days working at the department of Factual Verification for a magazine in New York, and his nights partying at the local clubs. One of the first things which strikes the contemporary reader is how amusingly dated the book is. For obvious reasons, no one uses a computer; the narrator and others do their job the old way, finding information in actual records and via telephone calls to various sources. Despite little evidence of the narrator doing much actual work requiring actual skill, he somehow manages to live in Manhattan, go to parties and get high on cocaine most of the time.

There is little to say about the narrator - although unhappy, he remains resigned throughout most of the novel. Despite wanting to work at the fiction department, he never once tries producing any actual fiction; although he feels alienated and misses his former wife, there is little to suggest that he is actually willing or even capable of pursuing a real relationship with anyone. The few biographical snippets which aim to give us more insight into the narrator's character - a look at the early days of his marriage, a visit by his brother - ultimately turn out to not be enough to arouse any interest in someone who is thoroughly uninteresting, even if he is "you". It does not help that the background characters are entirely forgettable - including the narrator's wife, and his friend and mentor, Tad Allagash, about whom we learn little more than his name. Ultimately, there is little reason to care about anything that happens in the novel as the narrator does not care very much either, and in the end this was exactly my reaction: I did not care at all.

This is not a terrible book, but it's a period piece through and through. There are a few good lines throughout the text (my favorite being "You are a republic of voices tonight. Unfortunately, that republic is Italy."), but Jay McInerney is no Bret Easton Ellis, and Bright Lights, Big City is not Less Than Zero and definitely not American Psycho, both of which feature similar themes but are much better books. ...more

flag 24 likes · Like · see review

Apr 07, 2013 Hadrian rated it it was ok

Shelves: usa, fiction

Ehhhhhhhh.

I do not care about this man, whose story is told in the second-person. If it is a gesture to make me feel sympathy for him, I do not. I do not care about his job. I do not care about his cocaine habit. I do not care about his idolizing his supermodel girlfriend. I do not care about his parties. I do not care about his boss or his papery coworkers. I do not care about the clumsy Nicholas Sparks story of his dying mother. I do not care about anything he says or does. All of it is superf ...more

flag 20 likes · Like · see review

Dec 18, 2013 Steven Godin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, america, postmodern-fiction

The ONLY McInerney novel worth reading and a masterpiece of 80's literature, New York is the setting and it's awash with money, excess, fashion, music, clubbing and of course the most important ingredient of all...Bolivian Marching Powder!, or for those not familiar-Cocaine. A brilliant comic morality tale told in first person narrative that is sharp, witty and a whole lot of fun, easily read in a couple of sittings, think American Psycho without the psychotic violence and dark humour and your o ...more

flag 20 likes · Like · see review

Jun 16, 2012 Drew rated it liked it

Not sure what to think of this one. On the one hand, it's got a lot of very good prose (and funny, too, e.g. "You are a republic of voices tonight. Unfortunately, that republic is Italy."), and you pretty much have to identify with the main character...he is you, after all.* On the other hand, and maybe this is symptomatic of first novels, but McInerney seems to feel the need to heap on some unnecessary dramatic events either in a quest for Total Sympathy or as a justification for the protagonis ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Dec 24, 2013 John Blumenthal rated it really liked it

Back in the day, this was considered a groundbreaking novel although I don't remember exactly why, other than the fact that it was written neither in the first nor the third person but in the second person. The character telling the story was referred to as "You." So it was "I" but McInerney called the "I" "You." Mixed up enough now? Anyway, it's about suffering through New York City nightlife in the mid-1980s and its publication made the author an instant literary sensation or, what the critics ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2007 Shepherd rated it really liked it

You get used to reading a novel in second person pretty quickly, so it's not really that annoying. You enjoy how quickly the pages turn, how quickly the plot flows. It's a fun read, if not a deep one. You recognize the parallels with your own life, but don't feel the need to dwell on this. You end up liking the main character, even though you know he's an asshole. You're a bit resistant to some implied moralizing at the end, but you let it go. And you will make use of the metaphor of cocaine use ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Jul 05, 2014 Jr Bacdayan rated it liked it · review of another edition

I didn’t care as much as I wanted to. Read this book if you’re looking for a one-night thing, a quickie reading that’s mainly for pleasure and the heck of it. If you’re looking for something serious, move on or read the part of this review under Sensuality vs Intellectualism. This novel offers some sort of limelight in the city of New York back in the ‘80s. The joy ride is personified by a man rapidly losing hold of his life. If you’re into that whole drug, party, booze getup then hooray for you I didn’t care as much as I wanted to. Read this book if you’re looking for a one-night thing, a quickie reading that’s mainly for pleasure and the heck of it. If you’re looking for something serious, move on or read the part of this review under Sensuality vs Intellectualism. This novel offers some sort of limelight in the city of New York back in the ‘80s. The joy ride is personified by a man rapidly losing hold of his life. If you’re into that whole drug, party, booze getup then hooray for you. On the other hand, if you’re a pretty low-key dude like me then it’s a meh. Still, the guy is an aspiring writer stuck in a desk job, so I can empathize to a degree. Overall there are some solid parts, this one particularly:

“But what you are left with is a premonition of the way your life will fade behind you, like a book you have read too quickly, leaving a dwindling trail of images and emotions, until all you can remember is a name.”

But then there are some lackluster scenes when it tried to be emotional but didn’t do enough, also the second-person point of view became a little disconcerting after some time. Still, it was quite fun. The book is at its best when it’s about the bright lights, enjoyment, and the city of New York. The ending left a little to be desired but it wasn’t too bad either.

Let me then dwell on the predominant issue that this book injected into my thoughts.

Sensuality vs. Intellectualism.

There are few things in this world that truly interest people. Mainly, they have to do with the senses. Rarely are people excited by the prospect of philosophy or intellectual stimulation. They associate more with the aesthetic; hence art is never devoid of its audience. People are sexual, gluttonous, musical, even fragrance is highly sought after. These qualities define people; it gives them their fleeting share of happiness. It gives them pleasure. But pleasure is subjective to what pleases one, and pleasure in the humanistic sense is delved in the stimulation of the senses. It leads one to question humanity’s major adjective, intellectual or sensual? Based on the aforementioned, I would conclude the latter. For what is the purpose of intellectual endeavors? An education is but the prerequisite for work. Nobody goes to the university to pursue knowledge, people pursue degrees. Their goal is to pass their requirements and find decent work. And in work, people think, exercise their minds in order to receive monetary compensation. Compensation which will be used for food, shelter, clothing, electricity, travel. One can argue that these are necessary for one’s survival, that one uses the intellect to survive. But things that we say sustain one’s survival are delved into the senses more than is necessary. So then, is intellect nothing but a means to an end? If the purpose of intellect is to lead us to a pleasurable sensual life, then should intellectual growth be pursued? Do we need to enhance the means? Wouldn’t a direct pursuit of the end be more efficient? If one follows this line of thinking, then seeking a life of sensual pleasure is the obvious choice to follow. One does not need an education to do that. But then we tackle humanity’s great flaw: greed. If intellect is the means to the sensual, then the greater the intellect the greater the sensual pleasure accessible. People want greater pleasure, they strive for intellect growth. Alas, there’s a catch. There’s a ledge at the end, a deep cliff of no return where a dark chasm awaits. When one proceeds past a certain point in the intellectual sphere, one becomes aware of the said circumstances. With awareness comes the numbing of the senses, the sensual. A mist engulfing one and suppressing feeling appears. Suddenly, the sensual is nothing but a distraction. A fascination of all things metaphysical gives reality the quality of a dream. One starts asking questions, and with questions come, not answers, but more questions. An awakening to why, what, who, where and for that, the sensual has no answer. But the intellect tells one that it is futile, that the answer doesn’t matter. It’s asking the question that tells you you’re awake, that the sensual is but a dream of those asleep. If there is something that can tip the scales, that can show that humanity is more intellectual than sensual, it’s one thing. Curiosity. The need to know. Why?
...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Dec 07, 2013 Sandra rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: usa

Qualche domenica fa, nell’inserto del Corriere della Sera sulla lettura c’era un’intervista a tale Gary Fisketjon, editor newyorkese scopritore di talenti come Cormac Mc Carthy ed anche di Jay Mc Inerney. Non avevo mai sentito parlare di questo scrittore, lo ammetto. Ma le parole entusiastiche dell’editor su questo scrittore enfant prodige, di cui pubblicò nel 1984 “Le mille luci di New York”, del quale dice che “occuperà sempre un posto speciale. Oltre ad essere impeccabile dal punto di vista l ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2019 Nigeyb rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I've no idea why I'd never read Bright Lights, Big City (1984), despite it being renowned as something of a classic. Or indeed anything written by Jay McInerney.

I loved it - from the first page to the last. It's a mere 192 pages and a quick and easy read. The story's narrator is a 24 year old would-be writer who works as a fact checker for a highbrow magazine. Most nights he is being led astray by his friend Tad Allagash: snorting cocaine, chasing the illusory nightlife dream, whilst also tryin ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

May 27, 2019 F rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, usa

Enjoyed this much more than was expecting.
Relatable

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2011 Kathryn rated it really liked it

Shelves: drugs, family-drama

A book which fits on very few of my shelves. I think it is good to read out of my comfort zone, though this is not the first book of this kind (drug-addled entitled and oblivious individuals in their twenties running around a city) which I have read. Less Than Zero was better but a beast of a differnet nature as well, so I am being totally unfair in comparing the two. But I simply have to compare McInerney and Ellis. They fed off of eachother, with Ellis leaning towards horror and McInerney towa A book which fits on very few of my shelves. I think it is good to read out of my comfort zone, though this is not the first book of this kind (drug-addled entitled and oblivious individuals in their twenties running around a city) which I have read. Less Than Zero was better but a beast of a differnet nature as well, so I am being totally unfair in comparing the two. But I simply have to compare McInerney and Ellis. They fed off of eachother, with Ellis leaning towards horror and McInerney towards something which more readers will be able to relate to. McInerney's main character in this book is more human than any character I have so far read created by Ellis. I was able to relate to this book on nearly every level, excluding the drugs. I feel the cocaine usage was a little too high but who am I to say. Maybe this extravagance, if you will, was intentional. Did everyone in the 80's who lived in a city use cocaine? I doubt it.

Most notably, Bright Lights, Big City is written in second person and this did contribute towards my being bale to relate to the character. The narrative style worked very well and I find myself drawn to more modern and post-modern fiction that employs it.

The writing is witty and honest and anyone who has ever lost someone, whether through death or through a relationship while young, will be able to sympathize with the main character. The sympathy I felt and my rooting for the character made this a positive read. The book is about the curveballs life throws at you and those moments when you realize you can handle more than you first thought possible. Of course, McInerney seems to be saying that it is handled best with cocaine balzing through your blood stream but I can excuse this. The book began with a wonderful biting humor, which never again quite reached the funny zenith I wanted it to later in the book. It was contemplative and the main character destructive, in an accepted-by-the-city and his peers kind of way. I quite liked the ending, though I can imagine some readers wanting more. My favorite chapter was the second(?), involving the main character's job as a fact checker. Life without computers must have sucked. ...more

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Dec 02, 2012 Wynne Kontos rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

My dad loaned this book to me right before I went abroad to Paris this summer. He had attached a yellow Post-It saying he thought I might enjoy it since it takes place in both New York and Paris (sort of).
I got no personal reading done in Paris, and this book, despite being only 230 something pages, has been on my shelf since this summer until I got to it this fall. There must have been a cosmic source making me wait to read it, since I believe books sometimes know when we need the stories insi My dad loaned this book to me right before I went abroad to Paris this summer. He had attached a yellow Post-It saying he thought I might enjoy it since it takes place in both New York and Paris (sort of).
I got no personal reading done in Paris, and this book, despite being only 230 something pages, has been on my shelf since this summer until I got to it this fall. There must have been a cosmic source making me wait to read it, since I believe books sometimes know when we need the stories inside them. "Bright Lights Big City" couldn't have come at a better time for me.

The novel is best known for it's use of second person narration, but this took little to no adaptation for me. The narrator is disillusioned by everything in his life, from his once kind-of-cool magazine job, to living in the "best city in the world," and his young model wife who has since left him for a modeling career in gay Paris.
The story opens to him high on cocaine, talking to a woman with a shaved head in a club who he may or may not want to have sex with if by any chance she happens to be interested, which he quickly determines she is not and ends up stumbling home at dawn, the New York city streets his only backdrop. Once I got over my momentary shock that this was one of my father's favorite novels, I was able to see the true beauty of what I was reading.
There's a reason this story has been at the tip of reader's tongues for over twenty years. Despite its age it remains relevant, touching, and laugh out loud funny. I was "that girl" laughing aloud on the SI Ferry on more than one occasion.

Perhaps it was my ability to identify with being a young twenty something struggling for a professional and personal identity in New York City. The city has an odd way of giving you value, especially as a young person. Even more as a writer, someone who struggles for more but can't quite determine how to get it. The narrator is this person. Hence what I said about "good timing."
Yet even I'll admit the same old young person searching for themselves story can get old and played out. And just when you think McInerney's bold writing style is the reason his run of the mill coming of age has remained in such strong focus, the story turns into something so much deeper, and much more touching by using family to reach through all the bull shit we experience when we think we've lost ourselves.

One of my favorite books I've ever read, and I think it saved me at a time when I was beginning to wonder what I WAS going to do with myself after all. ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Jan 09, 2016 Silvia Sirea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Frenesia e inadeguatezza sono le prime parole che mi vengono in mente se penso a questo romanzo.
Ci si ritrova, fin da subito, catapultati nella vita della New York degli anni ottanta tra grattacieli, taxi, luci e discoteche. Il protagonista, un giovane uomo di nemmeno trent'anni che lavora per un'importante rivista ed è stato da poco lasciato dalla bellissima moglie, cede alle lusinghe della cocaina per evitare di pensare alla piega triste che ha preso la sua vita.

La narrazione in seconda person ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Jan 21, 2016 Maria Thomarey rated it liked it

3,5

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Jul 12, 2018 Supreeth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, favorites

It would be an understatement to say that I read and loved this book. It's more like snorting coke, hanging around with this Allagash dude, partying every night, struggling with writer blocks, hating job....you get the idea, typical well-read, shallow, cynical young men with a thing for art. I've read a good chunk of second person narrated books lately - Suicide by Edouard Leve, The reluctant fundamentalist, Fall by Camus, but this is the only book that served the whole purpose of the style. Thi ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

May 23, 2018 dv rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Libro che ha la capacità di trascinare in un vortice temporale diretto verso gli anni ’80: inizia come un mix fra Afterhours di Scorsese e alcune delle migliori pagine di Bret Easton Ellis, continua come Office Space di Mike Judge per poi trovare una sua via originale che va oltre e supera tutti questi riferimenti. E per forza: sono tutti successivi al 1984 di questo libro. In questo sta la grandezza di McInerney: nell’aver messo su carta, prima di tutti, un immaginario fatto di cocaina, modelle ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2015 Kimbofo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: american-lit-reviews

What a joy this Bloomsbury classic proved to be. First published in 1985, I’d long written Jay Mcinnerney’s Bright Lights, Big City off as a “drugs novel” — but how wrong could I be? Yes, there’s a little bit of cocaine use in it, but this is a brilliant and memorable novel about one of my favourite subjects in fiction: journalism. And, like many books of that ilk, it’s essentially a black comedy — and one that felt very close to my heart.

The story revolves around a young man living a precarious ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Sep 21, 2009 Patrick rated it it was amazing

I finally read Bright Lights, Big City. I wanted to dislike it, to put it in the same category as American Psycho and move on. But I ended up liking the book. I liked it a lot, actually.

My main impressions were:

(1) This is not the best book I'll ever read, but it's better than 95 percent of the books I pick up. The plot is very undeveloped, but the story hangs together extremely well. A series of collages tells you what you need to know without connecting the dots for you. This is uncommon in ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

May 16, 2010 Jake rated it really liked it

Shelves: novel

I didn't expect to enjoy "Bright Lights, Big City", because the premise sounds so vile: cocaine-addled yuppie cracks up amid the glitzy world of 1980s Manhattan. But from the first pages, I realized something no one had ever told me about McInerney: he's a very funny writer. What's more, he makes the main character very sympathetic, so despite all the ridiculous, self-indulgent bullshit he pulls, you don't feel like he's a bad person, and you want him to be okay in the end. McInerney also does a ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2015 Stefania T. rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fernanda-pivano

Insaziabilmente spiritoso. Le battute si rincorrono come cani da caccia, tutte fanno centro, tutte divertono.
Narrare la storia in seconda persona singolare è stata senza dubbio alcuno una mossa intrigante.
Il finale è scenografico e poetico al tempo stesso.
Ma, purtroppo, il romanzo mi è rimasto addosso come una distratta passata di smalto scadente: troppi i fatti - schiacciati come sardine (elencati) in centocinquanta paginette, e personaggi di plastica, come condannato ad essere plastificato ris ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 06, 2015 Julie Ehlers rated it really liked it

Shelves: funny, literary-fiction

I recall the exact circumstances under which I obtained my copy of Bright Lights, Big City. Home from college on a break, I was at the local Waldenbooks perusing a cart full of remainders that were advertised at 90 percent off their already low sale prices. Among them was this book, remaindered at 99 cents and now discounted even further. I brought it up to the register, where it was rung up by the brother of a girl I went to middle school with. "Ten cents," he intoned. I looked in my wallet and I recall the exact circumstances under which I obtained my copy of Bright Lights, Big City. Home from college on a break, I was at the local Waldenbooks perusing a cart full of remainders that were advertised at 90 percent off their already low sale prices. Among them was this book, remaindered at 99 cents and now discounted even further. I brought it up to the register, where it was rung up by the brother of a girl I went to middle school with. "Ten cents," he intoned. I looked in my wallet and realized I had no change at all, then turned to my twin sister. "Jen, do you have a dime?" I asked. She did. And thus I acquired Jay McInerney's masterpiece, heavily marked down and literally on someone else's dime. Sorry, Jay McInerney. To add insult to injury, the book then sat on my shelf for over two decades, until my friend Glenn's recent review of another McInerney novel persuaded me to finally give this one a try.

So how did the book hold up all these years later? Well, some of it's dated now, of course—a lot of the nightclubs mentioned here don't exist anymore, to say nothing of the seedy Manhattan our protagonist ("you") endures every day. I may be hopelessly out of touch, but I don't think it's any longer de rigueur to casually offer your officemates cocaine and have them express nothing but gratitude at your generosity. And of course, the way the New Yorker fact-checking department operated back then seems impossibly quaint now.

And yet, in some ways this book still seems completely fresh and new, or at least it did to me. The irreverent humor, the depiction of office politics, the attempts at dating ("you are looking for the kind of girl who would never be in this kind of place at this time of night")—everything about it is just as lively and fun and original as it must have been for readers at the time, and it rings just as true. That's how you know you're reading something timeless: The period details matter so much less than the human predicaments and how they're handled, and Bright Lights, Big City gets most of that exactly right.

This is a brief, quick read, and thinking back on it a week after finishing, what I remember most vividly is the bracing beginning—a headlong plunge right into 1980s Manhattan—and the end, when things take a turn for the somber. The middle is more of a blur, with colorful moments coming to the surface as I ponder it. But this is entirely appropriate, because it's exactly how the protagonist ("you") experiences much of the action in the book anyway: a nonstop ride with little time to reflect until it's finally over. And when the ride is over, you understand why this book made such a splash at the time as well as why it's endured well past the decade it portrays. This was my first McInerney but it won't be my last. I pledge to pay full price for the next book and to use my own money. Will I finish it within two decades? I can't make a promise like that, but Bright Lights, Big City certainly makes me want to try. ...more

flag 23 likes · Like · see review

Apr 15, 2015 LATOYA JOVENA rated it liked it

Love the use of second person. Love feeling like I'm hitting all the best parties in NYC. Love all the fun names for cocaine. I even love the twin towers depicted on the cover.
Maybe a little short on plot and character but this is a fun novel not a sleep inducing, thought provoking, literary work.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2016 Goran Gluščić rated it really liked it

Do McInerneya sam došao zbog svoje opsjednutosti radovima Breta Eastona Ellisa. Ipak su njih dvojica, zajedno s Tamom Janowitz, u osamdesetima tvorili grupu mladih pisaca nazvanu 'The Brat Pack' koji su pisanjem romana i kratkih priča o urbanom yuppie glamuru ispunjenom bogataškom depresijom i kokainom zapravo i sami završili živeći takve živote.

Od onda je prošlo trideset godina i to su sada uspješni ljudi u pedesetim godinama, usprkos tome što neki od njih (khm, Bret, khm) još uvijek zapravo p ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

May 30, 2009 Scott rated it liked it

If Delillo is the master philosopher of the post-modern novel, Rushdie the satiric fantasist, and Bret Easton Ellis the brazen provocateur, then, based solely upon this, my initial introduction, Jay MacInerney seems to be the genre's humanist. For a book that laments the breakdown of human identity and significance in 80s New York, where even the very fate of literature and film is left in the hands of "pygmies" where giants once stood, the tenderness of the book's final 50 pages come as a real ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2008 Liz rated it liked it

Shelves: library

Is this really a book all New Yorkers have to read? That's how it was brought to my attention and, perhaps because of that, I found it disappointingly 80s. I was expecting the city to be more of a character but instead it's all coke and bars and mocking of lit magazines - Gawker before Gawker existed. I feel like "Bright Lights, Big City" belongs on a shelf with "American Psycho" and "Bonfire of the Vanities." The literary brat pack connection is obvious, the Tom Wolfe one maybe less so, but all ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Dec 21, 2015 Rachel Louise Atkin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, favorites, new-york

Read for the second time and oh my god this book is just so good. It’s ever better than Less Than Zero which really hurts me to admit.

—

Incredible. Oh my god. It had a different tone than I expected but I soon got used to it, and when I did I just couldn't stop reading. Finished it in less than 12 hours. Definitely going to be reading more McInerney after this one. If you like books about writers stumbling about New York and getting drunk with no real direction then read this now.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 10, 2007 Kay rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, americana

Although this book is tiny, the writing is sassy and smart. Set in the 80's New York young professional coke scene, think American Psycho but with less mutilation and more moping. Apparently they made a movie out of it with Michael J. Fox. I have no desire to see it.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Sep 04, 2017 sologdin rated it did not like it

Shelves: of-best-sentence-and-moost-solaas

Not so ludicrous as its oft-noted companion, Less Than Zero, but also not exactly on four corners with that novel, either. There, a lumpenized university student, here a proletarianized post-university kid. Both are more or less clueless, though this narrator (whose annoying second-person becomes synonymous with first-person fairly quickly) experiences routine domestic trauma sufficient to cause his difficulties.

As the text intones, "suffering is supposed to be the raw stuff of art" (39), and n Not so ludicrous as its oft-noted companion, Less Than Zero, but also not exactly on four corners with that novel, either. There, a lumpenized university student, here a proletarianized post-university kid. Both are more or less clueless, though this narrator (whose annoying second-person becomes synonymous with first-person fairly quickly) experiences routine domestic trauma sufficient to cause his difficulties.

As the text intones, "suffering is supposed to be the raw stuff of art" (39), and narrator is an aspiring writer. This mindset permits him to textualize human relationships, which are likened to books, such as when he considers his marriage: "what you are left with is a premonition of the way your life will fade behind you, like a book you have read too quickly, leaving a dwindling trail of images and emotions, until all you can remember is a name" (127).

If the text is a "matter of conducting an experiment in limits" (4), it is not certain that it is successful. It is however a "republic of voice" (6), most of them obnoxious. There's a weird section wherein dude thinks of himself in the third person (34), alien among the second-personism.

Though he feels as though he were "the only man in the city without group affiliation" (57), we can be certain that this pedestrian white boy is fairly generic; considering that his alleged lack of affiliation is set against "these Dracula Jews and zonked-out Africans," fair to conclude that this lack is the same as the lament WhY iS tHeRe No WhItE HiStOrY MoNtH? The gross class-bound character of the observations is found in the critique presented of dude's wife, when he is said to be "her ticket out of Trailer Park Land. Bright lights, big city" (116).

Dude works as a fact checker at a Manhattan journal of some sort. He accordingly torments himself with trifling observations, such as "objectively you know that Elaine is desirable, and you feel obligated to desire her" (52). He wants to work in the fiction department, however, which "is the opposite of verifying a factual piece. To confirm that the story doesn't unintentionally coincide at any point with real people and events" (22), which perhaps suggests a protocol of reading here. He finds that "in the examination of personal libraries is an entire hermeneutics of character analysis"(136). His own library, we have seen, contains unread copies of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Faulkner, Heidegger (39), whatever that might mean.

Anyway, it's one of those texts wherein anyone might bust out cocaine at any time and everyone is cool with that; even some little kid is selling the stuff. Whatever.

Recommended for those with a lowlife visa, illegitimate daughters of Che Guevara, and giant Nubian slaves. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 02, 2017 Don rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I've been reading literature seriously for 15 years, and I have no idea how I've just now read Bright Lights, Big City. My first impression is that this is a classic. It's shocking to me that this book, which made a huge splash during its 1984 release, seems to have been largely forgotten. The writing is perfect from a technical standpoint; the story is a page-turner, and the portrait of the protagonist is raw, verisimilitudinous, and in the end deeply moving.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 05, 2009 Amanda Patterson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-remember

The unnamed protagonist of this brilliant novel is a writer who works as a fact checker for a high-brow magazine. At night he loses himself in parties, using and abusing cocaine.
Our protagonist does not want to find himself sober. If he does, he'll have to accept that his wife, Amanda, has left him. His answer is to embrace the hedonism of the 1980s yuppie party scene.
Told from the second person narrative viewpoint, the novel is perfect for the disassociation with self and soullessness of this d ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 10, 2014 Andrew rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. McInerney pulls off this narrative all in the second person. He moves from to scene to scene in such a fluid way that the book's end comes as a shock, not because of content but because it snuck up. There's a tremendous amount of courage in ending a book at page 180. Sure, there is more to know, greater depths to dip down into, but often those can live in our imaginations.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 20, 2009 Moira Russell rated it it was ok

Shelves: underwhelmed

Dreadfully overrated. I think every professor in every single writing workshop I ever attended quoted that opening.

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 12, 2012 George K. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century

Είναι το πρώτο βιβλίο του Μακίνερνι που διαβάζω, είναι και το πρώτο που έγραψε ο συγγραφέας το 1984. Μπαίνει στην ίδια κατηγορία με βιβλία του Μπρετ Ίστον Έλις, ίσως και του Ντάγκλας Κόπλαντ, (και άλλων παρόμοιων συγγραφέων), αν και το στιλ του είναι φυσικά διαφορετικό.

Το βιβλίο είναι γραμμένο σε δεύτερο πρόσωπο και το στιλ αυτό λειτούργησε πάρα πολύ καλά (μόλις το δεύτερο βιβλίο που έχω διαβάσει και είναι γραμμένο σε δεύτερο πρόσωπο, το άλλο είναι το Ψευδή σημεία επαφής του Ανδρούτσου).

Το μυθ Είναι το πρώτο βιβλίο του Μακίνερνι που διαβάζω, είναι και το πρώτο που έγραψε ο συγγραφέας το 1984. Μπαίνει στην ίδια κατηγορία με βιβλία του Μπρετ Ίστον Έλις, ίσως και του Ντάγκλας Κόπλαντ, (και άλλων παρόμοιων συγγραφέων), αν και το στιλ του είναι φυσικά διαφορετικό.

Το βιβλίο είναι γραμμένο σε δεύτερο πρόσωπο και το στιλ αυτό λειτούργησε πάρα πολύ καλά (μόλις το δεύτερο βιβλίο που έχω διαβάσει και είναι γραμμένο σε δεύτερο πρόσωπο, το άλλο είναι το Ψευδή σημεία επαφής του Ανδρούτσου).

Το μυθιστόρημα αυτό ακολουθεί έναν 24χρονο νέο που ζει στο Μανχάταν της Νέας Υόρκης και βλέπουμε την ζωή του στα διάφορα νάιτκλαμπς, σε επιδείξεις μόδας, σε διάφορα πάρτι σε σπίτια διάσημων, αλλά και στο γραφείο του περιοδικού όπου εργάζεται ως διορθωτής κειμένων. Γενικά είναι ένας νέος που πίνει πολλά ποτά και σνιφάρει κόκα, αλλά γενικά μπορεί να πει κανείς ότι δεν ξεφεύγει πολύ, συν τοις άλλοις είναι συμπαθής και ψάχνει να βρει ένα νόημα στη ζωή του, να ανακαλύψει τον καλύτερό του εαυτό. Και τα προβλήματά του δεν είναι λίγα. Από την μια ο κέρβερος - προϊστάμενη του τμήματος επαλήθευσης, που ευκαιρία ψάχνει να του τα ψάλει, από την άλλη ο πρόσφατος χωρισμός με την γυναίκα του, μανεκέν, που τον παράτησε σύξυλο έτσι ξαφνικά, αλλά και ο θάνατος της μητέρας του από καρκίνο, έναν χρόνο πριν, που ακόμα τον σκέφτεται.

Η γραφή πολύ καλή, η ατμόσφαιρα της Νέας Υόρκης ωραία, η ιστορία ενδιαφέρουσα αλλά χωρίς ιδιαίτερη πλοκή, γενικά ένα κλασικό στο είδος του βιβλίο που διαβάζεται πολύ γρήγορα και ευχάριστα. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

May 06, 2015 Eveline Chao rated it it was amazing

LOVED this. There's at least 1 representation (of a ballbreaker female boss) that I find a little problematic, and some of the revealed psychological motivations behind the character's actions are a tad cliched, but the author gets a pass for how young he was when he wrote this. In the end it was all just SO funny and clever and moved so fast and packed so much information and sharpness and heartache into such simple short sentences, that I couldn't get enough of it. Really enjoyed the unusual s ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2014 Carl R. rated it did not like it

So you decide pick a book or two off a must-read list of 25, and one of them is Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney and you open it up to find that it's a first person narrator writing in the second person. You've heard of this phenomenon, but never encountered it and are fascinated with how it goes. For a while. Then, more and more, you feel like the narrator is calling "you" "you" and you object that you aren't in this night club at all but reading about someone who's in this night club a ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 19, 2010 Tubs rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: compact-and-worthy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. okay. i read this book and Ian McEwan's Amsterdam in a span of like five days. they're both short, quick-ish reads, so thinking about one book always ends up as a comparison with the other. this despite the fact that they're not extremely similar. this book was more immediately satisfying during the reading of it; i felt some degree of emotional investment in what the main character was going through. however, that ended when the book did. amsterdam, on the other hand, while not as emotionally e okay. i read this book and Ian McEwan's Amsterdam in a span of like five days. they're both short, quick-ish reads, so thinking about one book always ends up as a comparison with the other. this despite the fact that they're not extremely similar. this book was more immediately satisfying during the reading of it; i felt some degree of emotional investment in what the main character was going through. however, that ended when the book did. amsterdam, on the other hand, while not as emotionally engaging, has kept me thinking. maybe that's because i feel i have a semi-decent understanding of what jay mcinerney was trying to get across. amsterdam, on the other hand, i'm still trying to figure out.

ANYWAY. here's some thoughts about bright lights big city:

before reading this, i associated it in my mind with the other books about crazy '80s decadence in new york city, like bonfire of the vanities or american psycho (neither of which i've read). while reading it, however, i was reminded of the bell jar and catcher in the rye (which i have read, and of which the former i appreciated and the latter not so much). so i ended up reading this as a book (like the bell jar and catcher in the rye) about a young adult more or less alone in new york city who has some serious emotional and/or mental and/or personal issues that are going unaddressed and are derailing his or her life. additionally, sometime around the reading of this book, i saw this article about how people in their early to mid twenties are still biologically in a kind of adolescence. this puts the three main characters in these three books in roughly the same age group or stage of development. the jay mcinerney character is 24, but he's still very young to be dealing with the events he's facing. all three novels play out in similar fashions and end up making the case that, for all its merits, new york city is just about the most lonely, alienating place to be when you're mentally/emotionally out of sorts. i guess this isn't necessarily a bad thing if it acts as a kind of crucible that forces eventual self-realization and growth. it just sucks in the meantime, seeing the city teeming with people who taunt you with their busyness and goals, when you can't figure out or even care how to get your life in order. as jack bauer once said, "there’s nothing more dangerous and destructive than being in New York without a sense of purpose."

also, the whole oh, *he's* the coma baby stuck in his dead mom realization hit me in just the right place. i appreciated that. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Literati: Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney	8	8	Jan 08, 2018 02:56PM
Reading Bingo 2017: Bright Lights, Big City fits sooooo many bingo squares	1	15	Feb 15, 2017 10:08AM
More Please	5	56	Nov 06, 2013 05:35PM
It's six a.m. Do you know where you are?	4	86	Nov 20, 2012 02:41PM

See a Problem?

Preview — Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

Bright Lights, Big City

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Jay McInerney

Books by Jay McInerney

Trivia About Bright Lights, Bi...

Quotes from Bright Lights, Bi...

See a Problem?

Preview — Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney

Bright Lights, Big City

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Jay McInerney

Books by Jay McInerney

Trivia About Bright Lights, Bi...

Quotes from Bright Lights, Bi...

new topic
Discuss This Book