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

[Emma]

3/5
- J’ai bien aimé le rythme du récit et bien sûr l’écriture de l’auteur.
- en revanche, j’étais un peu déçue par l’intrigue, ce qui est sans doute un peu ma faute : je m’attendais à une plongée acide dans le monde de la mode et en fait c’est sur ce type qui se fait larguer par sa copine mannequin. C’est ça. C’est tout.
- oh et puis il y a quand même quelques discours limites sur les femmes…

[Kristel]

McInerney est un auteur génial, y compris dans ce livre. Hilarant et profond.