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Bright Lights, Big City | 
 enlarge | Author: Jay Mcinerney
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.20
You Save: £4.79 (60%)
New (28) Used (7) from £0.99
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 23148
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0747589208
EAN: 9780747589204
ASIN: 0747589208
Publication Date: February 5, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Next day dispatch by Royal Mail. International delivery available. 1000's of satisfied customers! Please contact us with any queries. Next day dispatch by Royal Mail. International delivery available. 1000's of satisfied customers! Please contact us with any queries.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Clever, sly, funny and tender. July 4, 2008
Zola fan (Hants, UK)
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 scene described) and the racy, witty style of writing which flows so effortlessly - a tribute to the writer's intellect. The other reviewers have done a much better job than I could but I just wanted to say the book was so good that I read it from start to finish in one sitting and have just ordered three more. I am still tittering over the tiny Bolivian soldiers who need Bolivian Marching Powder and there's quite a lot of laugh-out-loud humour in this book.
A masterpiece June 1, 2008
Dr. J. S. E. Sullivan-lyons (London United Kingdom)
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. The story may be as unhealthy as kebab and chips after a night on the town, but the reader is left feeling as replete as if they had eaten a 3 Michelin starred meal.
The very best March 6, 2008
Mr. F. I. Dudaniec
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. This is the Catcher in the Rye for our time. In my top ten books of all time.
 Generation X and all that goes with it--great first novel November 29, 2007
James Monroe (Lincolnshire)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
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 way. My particular copy is the American version with a view of the World Trade Centers on the cover, in the background--talk about a book set in the past. But that's why I have so taken to it again; it is a time capsule of New York, the way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or the way the book "The Devil Wear Prada" is. And those books have more in common with "Bright Lights" than just insane bosses and drug and social problems. Few novels will change the landscape of literature, but "Bright Lights" did, ushering in the way for the works of Palahniuk, Sedaris, McCrae, and Ellis. Even Burroughs ows something to Mr. McInerney. My only problem with this one book? It was too short and should have been a 400 page novel. It's rare you can say this about a book, but in this case, it's true.
Brightly lit March 7, 2007
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
"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.
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