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    Bright Lights, Big City
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    Bright Lights, Big City
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    Bright Lights, Big City
    Audiobook5 hours

    Bright Lights, Big City

    Written by Jay McInerney

    Narrated by Daniel Passer

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    With the publication of Bright Lights, Big City in 1984, Jay McInerney became a literary sensation, heralded as the voice of a generation. The novel follows a young man, living in Manhattan as if he owned it, through nightclubs, fashion shows, editorial offices, and loft parties as he attempts to outstrip mortality and the recurring approach of dawn. With nothing but goodwill, controlled substances, and wit to sustain him in this anti-quest, he runs until he reaches his reckoning point, where he is forced to acknowledge loss and, possibly, to rediscover his better instincts. This remarkable novel of youth and New York remains one of the most beloved, imitated, and iconic novels in America.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 25, 2009
    ISBN9780307578167
    Unavailable
    Bright Lights, Big City
    Author

    Jay McInerney

    Jay McInerney is an American novelist, screenwriter and wine critic. His novels include Bright Lights, Big City, Ransom, Story of My Life, Brightness Falls and The Last of the Savages.

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    Reviews for Bright Lights, Big City

    3.5/5

    821 ratings23 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I was given a copy of this novel more than thirty years ago, not long after it was published, but, with what might, sadly, have been characteristic ingratitude at that time, I had stowed it away on a bookshelf somewhere, unread and largely forgotten. Looking back, I am not sure what had put me off reading it? The story does, after all, explore similar territory to one of my favourite films of that period, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, but somehow the book never quite managed to call out to me.What brought me to dig it out after all this time was a chance viewing of an excellent documentary that Jay McInerney presented on BBC4, called Sincerely F Scott Fitzgerald. McInerney has never been crippled with shyness about his own standing as a writer, as evinced in the opening salvo of that documentary: “New York is a lucky city, at least as far as literature is concerned. Every few decades it produces a writer who tells its stories, its triumphs, its tragedies, its comedies, its romance. About thirty years ago the job fell to me, Jay McInerney. A fair number of reviewers of my first novel, Bright Lights, big City, invoked the name of F Scott Fitzgerald.” Having loved The Great Gatsby since I first read it back in the Sixth Form of Loughborough Grammar School, and returning to reread it every few years (and I sense yet another revisitation coming very shortly), but knowing nothing about McInerney himself or his writing, I considered this a very bold claim. I might have set this vaunting claim aside, had I not found the documentary to be wonderful. McInerney talked about Fitzgerald’s life, writing, alcoholism, infidelity and mental fragility with great insight and sensitivity, illustrated with a wealth of quotations from his letters and works. I was so impressed that I decided his novel deserved a reading, as a mark of gratitude.The story concerns a disaffected young man who works as a fact checker for a highly respected magazine (possibly modelled on The New Yorker). After living in New York for a couple of years he finds that his life is starting to come apart. His beautiful wife, Amanda, a fashion model whose career has had recently had a meteoric rise, has left him, failing to return from a photo shoot arranged in Paris. In a state of deep denial, he has not told anyone about this, apart from his friend Tad Allagash. Work is difficult, too: he had always dreamt of being a writer, and had submitted various pieces to the magazine’s fiction department, although these had all been rejected. This repeated failure to have his own writing published has led to a growing resentment about his own role, which he sees as propping up other writers who had not taken sufficient care to authenticate their own facts.Out of the office, he spends most nights cruising bars with Allagash, succumbing to an ever-increasing cocaine habit. He has sufficient self-awareness left to know that he cannot sustain this lifestyle much longer, but is unable to drag himself out of it. There are some close comparisons with bud Fox’s experience in Wall Street, both of them led astray by the appurtenances of 1980s’ rampant hedonism. There is also a deft juxtapositioning of the conspicuous extravagance of the rich and successful with dark forays into the drug dealing underclass. It is abundantly clear to everyone except the protagonist himself how thin and brittle a carapace there is between his current privileged existence, with his enviable position in a renowned magazine, fashionable apartment and flamboyant social life, and the realities of existence for the majority of the city’s inhabitants. At one point, he is invited to dinner at the home of a colleague, and there is a sudden and endearing flash of normality and domesticity, but this is all too fleeting.The novel is far more engaging that that synopsis might suggest. I struggled at first because it is written almost entirely in the second person, but once I had become accustomed to the approach, it seemed to fit the story very effectively, as if the writer is giving a running commentary to the main protagonist. McInerney’s prose is generally sparse, but he peppers it with some marvellous metaphors and literary or philosophical allusions.This book is not going to feature in any list of my favourite books, but I do now regret not having read it a lot earlier than I eventually did, and I am fairly confident that I will read it again (although nowhere near as often as I re-read The Great Gatsby.) I think that Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities captured the crassness fatuities of 1980s New York hedonism far more effectively, but that does not mean that this book was not successful. I will be interested to see what McInerney’s other novels are like.
    • 4/5
      You are not really a fan of second-person narratives, but you find yourself engrossed in this debut novel (published way back in 1984) by Jay McInerney. You keep reading and reading about the escapades of the unnamed 24-year-old narrator (so young!) who is a cokehead and is a fact-checker for a NYC magazine. You wonder why you didn't read this back in the 80s, and also you found this novel amusing at times.
    • 3/5
      I liked the movie better.
    • 5/5
      No idea why it took me so long to read this book. Loved it. What an interesting use of the second-person perspective. For most of the book, I thought I was reading about a young guy snorting his life away, but then there was this injection of sentiment toward the end that explained everything. Great story.
    • 5/5
      An amazing accomplishment - it is possible to live a character through the direct use of the second person. McInerney is genius.
    • 5/5
      Interesting novel about cocaine culture in 1980s New York City. Loved the writing style, second person point of view, and character development. Even though the book was written over 30 years ago, many of the themes feel relevant and relatable today.
    • 4/5
      It's been quite awhile since I read this book, but I recall it being one that I read in a single sitting and by the end I felt partially crazy and coked out myself. This is still the only book I've ever read in the 2nd person.
    • 4/5
      While reading Bright Nights, Big City you want to call its protagonist a sucker. He buys fake Rolex watches, falls for fake schemes, follows around false friends, and believes a model could love him enough to stay married until death do them part. You want to call him a loser because you know there isn't a happy ending for this guy. Drugs constantly addle his mind to the point where he loses his fact checking job, loses his freak friends, and nearly loses his mind. What he doesn't realize is that he has a lot to mourn. He is literally drowning his deep seeded grief over losing his mother to cancer in an avalanche of cocaine and bright lights. The end comes when rock bottom is met and he has an awakening of sorts.
    • 5/5
      One of the best books ever written about life in NYC. I loved the second person narrative perspective.
    • 5/5
      I will refrain from writing a review in the second person.This is my favourite book of all-time. I have read it about six times now and I still laugh hysterically at times. It is rather funny in parts but, ultimately, the book is heading towards a sad and regretful end and you can feel this ominously as the book moves on. There is a slight chink of optimism shining through at the end. It is a short book but I think that just makes it even better. You can have it read within a few hours.I think McInerney is just brilliantly effortless with his writing. I have read all his works (bar the wine non-fiction he has been doing recently) and I still think this tops the lot. I would recommend Brightness Falls, Story of My Life, How It Ended and The Last Bachelor if you enjoyed this book.
    • 3/5
      Interesting view back into the mid 1980s culture in New York City. Not great, but not bad either. I don't exactly agree that it is a "100 New Classics"; but it was ok.
    • 4/5
      Surprised by how much I enjoyed this, one of the quintessential modern New York novels. It ends up being redemptive and sweet, even optimistic. Definitely recommended.
    • 3/5
      You are in your early twenties and living in Manhattan, it's 1980s and you work for a prestigious magazine proud of its record for factual accuracy, and you work in the department responsible for checking those facts, The Department of Factual Verification. But you aspire to writing fiction and disdain you work, and that combined with your hedonistic lifestyle results in you not always coming up to par, so your boss has it in for you. To add to your troubles your wife has left you, but you don't tell anyone other than your friend Tad Allagash, the one who leads you in your life of pleasure seeking and frequent use of drugs.Written unusually in the second person, McInerney's first novel, which caused a stir on its firs publication, is a funny and observant account of a young man whose life is getting out of control and running down hill, a young man who refuses all offers of help to get him back on track. The problem with that is that I find it hard to empathise with the character, and if I am going to enjoy a novel that is a prerequisite. "You" are a nice enough chap, but you have too many faults that I find you hard to relate to, and very soon hard to care about, and that is important if I am really going to get involved in your story. Of course this is also a very funny account, probably much funnier than I found it to be, perhaps I tend to read too earnestly, maybe I should get someone else to read it aloud to me to appreciate the humour.Novels written in the second person are rare, and after reading this I am not surprised, McInerney undoubtedly pulls it off, yet at the same time the constant you-you-you can grate a little. I did not enjoy this as I had hoped, I came to it after having read Nick Earl's World of chickens and having noted Earl's high praise for it (and having thorouglhy enjoyed Earl's writing thought his recommendation worth following). Some time ago I read and truly enjoyed McInerney's The Last of the Savages so had high hopes for Bright Lights . . . While I am glad to have read it, I do not feel it came quite up to expectations, nonetheless I would recommend giving it a go, it only for its rare use of the second person.(I read his in the Bloomsbury Classics hardback edition, pub 1992, it is worth mentioning that it is a very small format edition, a pocket sized book.)
    • 5/5
      Recently I tried a book given to me by a friend that didn't click for me. My friend said, I guess this was your Bright Lights, Big City--a book I recommended to her. Humor is a funny, very individual thing, and this is one of my favorite books, while my friend hated it and abandoned it mid-read. It might help that I'm a native New Yorker. I admit I got a kick at seeing my city through the narrator's eyes and recognizing such things as the manic energy, the emptiness of the club scene, the insanity you find on the streets, buses and subways, and above all the city treasure, the New York Post headline, that was at it's absurdest best in the early 80s when this book was published.And mind you, my friend actually likes books in second person. That very likely is why you've heard of the book, and why you might be curious to try it. The entire short novel is written in the very rare second person, present tense point of view. That might seem like a stunt, a gimmick, and I admit that is what made me curious. But one of the tests of an outre technique like that is do you notice it for the entire book, or does it disappear after a while? For me, very quickly, I got used to it and didn't notice it--not consciously. But I do think second person gives a certain tone to the book. That very friend who didn't like this book actually likes the use of second person--she feels it's very good in its distancing at conveying damage, and the narrator is exactly that--damaged. For my friend as I recall, too damaged. One of the scenes I found funniest in the book with a certain ferret was her breaking point. Does this yuppie cokehead ever wise up she asked me? Sorta. What does happen is that 157 pages into the book we learn the source of his damage, and it was enough for me at least to feel for him and forgive him. As for change--well, there's that subtle hint--and I loved it for its subtlety--in the very last line.
    • 3/5
      Like Less Than Zero, fair amount of drug taking, but more humor. And stuff actually happens. The events at the magazine are funny, and the vandalizing of the supervisor's office (with the ferret) was fun. The second person delivery is annoying, and the ending is a bit sappy.
    • 4/5
      Bright Lights, Big City is a novel that seems to elicit either incredible loathing or awed praise from readers. Count me in neither camp. Is the second person narration a gimmick? Sure, but it's a well-done gimmick and McInerney got their first. Is the main character a spoiled privileged yuppie brat? Obviously, but he's also miserable, empty, and essentially alone, so wrap that schadenfreude blanket tight. Is Tad Allagash little more than the quintessential caricature of a villain? Yup, but aren't those folks rather amusing, too? Are the female characters flat and firmly entrenched in either the virgin camp or the whore camp? Absolutely, but Charles Dickens is considered a great author and he did that, too. In the end, it's a quick jaunt in NYC (the city whose ego never sleeps) during the decadent early 80s; it was fun to visit via the page but I wouldn't want to stay long.
    • 4/5
      I love Jay I think he's an awesome writer and definitely a gifted talented guy but I enjoyed SLIDE by SAIRA VIOLA even more !
    • 3/5
      Before you were Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2006, you were a self-absorbed, expensively educated, coke-hoovering young man on the make in early eighties New York, half-assing your job as a fact-checker at an obvious New Yorker stand-in by day and hitting the clubs and the local dealers by night. "You" of course, are, or "were," or possibly "was," the protagonist of Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights, Big City," and, let's face it, you're a bit of a jerk, and, just like this review, lean heavily on a literary gimmick. "Bright Lights, Big City" isn't exactly a bad book: it's a simple story, simply told, and it works well enough, in its limited way, as a this-is-your generation expose and an embarrassing Reagan-era cultural artifact. McInerney at least wins points for consistency, keeping his voice restrained, peppering his text with wry little observations, and, most of all, not blowing the game by revealing his narrator's name or changing his voice. This isn't to say that McInerney's narrator is terribly likable: he isn't. He's self-involved and self-pitying, at once arrogant and sort of spineless, and very, very confused about who he is. He is, however, believable as a confused, coked-up, self-involved twenty-four-year-old. You might know someone just like him, or, worse, might have been something like him once. It's Tad Allagash, the narrator's sidekick, confidant, and personal Mephistopheles, who provides much of the fun there is to be had in this novel. Witty to a fault and utterly devoid of conscience or shame, he might be the eighties' answer to Buck Mulligan. Oh, Lord, did I just compare "Bright Lights, Big City" to "Ulysses?"Now for the morning after: this novel's faults are considerable and not that hard to identify. McInerney's women are largely caricatures, being either ball-breakers, whores, or saintly agents of his protagonist's salvation. Also, despite the fact that McInerney's character seems to have gone to a big-name Eastern school and work at a magazine very much like the New Yorker, his worldview seems limited to himself and his own volatile emotions. This narrowness can't be explained away by sheer narcissism. Sure, there's that clever line about the trade paperbacks piling up, unread, on his bookshelves, but even educated egotists read something while they were away at college. Perhaps the Bolivian Marching Powder ate away at our narrator's education after it demolished his sinuses? Finally, would think that a book starring a generational everyman would at least have something to say about the generation he belongs to, but McInerney, and his "you," hold back. For them, it's just one party after another. Lucky them.
    • 1/5
      Amusing because it is written in second person.Drug days of the 1980's
    • 3/5
      I was suprised by the story's depth, and the author was successful in making me feel as worn out as the main character. Overall, however, it just felt a bit generic, perhaps because the character's battle is mostly a private matter and the results of his choices don't seem especially consequential.
    • 5/5
      Young urban sophisticates in the age of disco and cocaine, and before AIDS. A not unpleasant portrait of an age.
    • 4/5
      If you took "Less Than Zero" and transferred it to the east coast, you would end up with "Bright Lights, Big City". Although it's another story of a man trying to find himself in this world I couldn't help but love it.
    • 4/5
      A young man finds his life slowly spiralling into the depths of chaos of cocaine and depression. His wife has left him. He is close to being fired from his job at a reputable New York magazine. A good read; honest and simple; use of 2nd-person voice suits story very well.