Model Behaviour

by Jay McInerney

'I'm sick of all this pointless glamour,' his glamorous girlfriend said. 'I want a simple life.' If only Connor McKnight had listened. Now Philomena is off to California, allegedly on a fashion shoot, but he doesn't know where she is staying and a sinking feeling tells him that she might never come back. Connor's friend Jeremy Green is no help: he is the 'famous short-story writer' (which they both agree is an oxymoron) with an imminent publication date and some people holding his dog to ransom for reasons too Machiavellian to blurb. Connor's sister Brook, genius mathematician and anorexic, is too busy anguishing over Rwanda and Bosnia. His editor at CiaoBella!, 'a lifestyle magazine for young women', is only concerned about Connor's profile of Chip Ralston, the celebrity of the month whose PR fortress has suddenly become impenetrable. Thank goodness for Pallas, a knock-out table dancer with a heart of gold. As the reader wonders with Connor what's happened to Philomena, if Jeremy will get his dog back, and whether our hero will get his interview with Chip, the wonderful narrative roars away at a stunning clip. Jay McInerney is on absolutely top form in this hilarious (and serious) novel about celebrity, romance and 20th-century literature.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Literature, American, Novels

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

John Barrett McInerney Jr. is an American writer. His novels include Bright Lights, Big City, Ransom, Story of My Life, Brightness Falls, and The Last of the Savages. He edited The Penguin Book of New American Voices, wrote the screenplay for the 1988 film adaptation of Bright Lights, Big City, and co-wrote the screenplay for the television film Gia, which starred Angelina Jolie. He is the wine columnist for House & Garden magazine, and his essays on wine have been collected in Bacchus & Me (2000) and A Hedonist in the Cellar (2006). His most recent novel is titled The Good Life, published in 2006.

Reviews

[York]

Una de las cosas que amé de esta novela es que no esperaba nada de ella y terminó dejándome un montón de frases memorables en medio de toda esa comedia del absurdo. Similar a Bret Easton Ellis, pero sin la hiperviolencia ni la obsesión por los detalles descriptivos, lo que lo vuelve tremendamente digerible y divertido. Es como una bolsa de doritos nachos.

Aquí las mejores citas del libro:

http://yorkperry.blogspot.mx/2009/11/...

[Ella Blomfeld]

Una lectura muy diferente a lo que solia leer. Era bastante extraño, al principio me costaba, me aburria, era casi insoportable. Los personajes me caian mal de sobremanera (en especial Philomena).
Volvi a retomar en libro este mes. Lo pude terminar.
No se como explicarlo, ha sido... oh no lo se.
No puedo decir que ha sido el mejor libro de este genero que he leido. Pero si puedo decir que me ha sorprendido. No se centra en la trama, es mas, a ser sinceros es una trama bastante aburrida. Solo un par de cosas que le suceden a un par de personas.
Lo que importa es... las palabras, los dialogos, las cosas que ambos personajes se dicen entre si.
En fin, aun asi, no fue lo mas bueno del mundo.
El final no quedo muy claro, y el escritor casi siempre exponia las cosas a travez de indirectas.
[SPOILER] Si Connor no habria dicho directamente sobre la muerte de Jeremy, no me habria enterado.
Philomena, ¿Al final volvio?
Nada quedo muy claro. Jenni le corto parcialmente la oreja a Brooke, o eso es lo que creo.
No fue un buen final, y no porque no pasara lo que queria. Si no, porque no se pudo entender que pasaba en ese final.