Denise's Reading Blog: Review: Bright Lights, Big City

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney-Notes & Highlights

My last reading session was about 30 + minutes. I finished reading this book on Friday, February 16, 2024 at 1:16 p.m.

My personal copy.

My Eaudiobook from Google Play Books. I bought this with my money from doing Google surveys. I think it was a good purchase.

I’m not sure where I first discovered this book, but I really, really want to read it badly! I first tried to read it at the old house on my iPad, but I didn’t like that the writing was in second person, so I listed it in my “did-not-finish” Goodreads bookshelf. Then, years later on an Alan Palomo interview came along. I heard him mention a handful of books that inspired his recent album called World of Hassle. I remember that the title of this book attracted me to it because I love the city, so it intrigued me. I read a few pages already and I found the quote that Alan mentioned in the interview and in one of his new songs. He likes the vibe of the book, and I think that I will too. So I am going to give this book another chance. Another thing that I forgot to mention is that I bought this book at the Glendale Main Library book sale section of the library. I think it was one dollar. I paid with cash. I loved to see that book there. It was one of the first times that I bought a book from a library. They usually don’t have books that interest me there. So I made a Goodreads bookshelf of books I know he's read. Here's the link if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/40758404?order=a&shelf=al-pal&sort=date_added. I also posted this information onto the Alan Palomo / Neon Indian Discord server that I am a member of.

Here is the original short story published to The Paris Review (ISSUE 86, WINTER 1982) titled It’s Six A.M. Do You Know Where You Are? by Jay McInerney:

https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/3106/its-six-am-do-you-know-where-you-are-jay-mcinerney

I did not finish this one because the second person writing narrative was uncomfortable, but interesting to me. I also couldn't connect with the characters all too well.

I read the ebook through searching deep into Google for a pdf or epub file and I heard the audiobook through a free trial through Kobo, an app of some kind.

May 31, 2020

The Department of Factual Verification

and there is also no graceful way to admit failure.

May 31, 2020

The Department of Factual Verification

In fact, you don’t want to be in Fact. You’d much rather be in Fiction.

omg me

May 31, 2020

The Department of Factual Verification

Your soul is as disheveled as your apartment, and until you can clean it up a little you don’t want to invite anyone inside.

May 31, 2020

The Department of Factual Verification

You’re thinking of bed. You are so tired you could stretch out right here on the linoleum and slip into a long coma.

I just wanna tell this man to get a cup of Joe!

June 2, 2020

The Utility of Fiction

omnipotent

All-powerful

June 2, 2020

The Utility of Fiction

Some Girls” segues to “Shattered

June 2, 2020

A Womb With a View

On the first Tuesday of the month

It's funny that I'm reading this chapter on the first Tuesday of June 2020.

All Excerpts From

Mcinerney, Jay. “Bright Lights, Big City.” Vintage, 1983-12-31T05:00:00+00:00. Apple Books.

This material may be protected by copyright.

Sent from my iPad

“Tad’s mission in life is to have more fun than anyone else in New York City, and this involves a lot of moving around, since there is always

the likelihood that where you aren’t is more fun than where you are” (5).

Alan Palomo featured this quote in his recent song called Club People off of his new album World of Hassle. His lyric goes like this: ‘Cause where you aren’t is always funner than where you are.

“You know there is a special purgatory waiting for you out there in the dawn’s surly light” (12).

I feel like I’ve heard that phrase in a song before. I must Google it sometime. I just Googled it and it’s in the Star Spangled Banner.

Lolz.

* I like when the protagonist walks along his old apartment and says a little about what he used to do on page 14.

“Here you are again. All messed up and no place to go” (15).

Why do some of these quotes sound like song lyrics? They are so good though! <3 =D

“...but when the news is all bad it’s a relief that someone doesn’t want to hear it” (43).

* The main character’s job is so boring! LOL

“You tell her what a good guy Tad is. You like his energy and his style—joie de vivre, je ne sais quoi, savoir-faire, sprezzatura” (126).

I appreciate that the movie's script was written or that the author was involved with the script because almost everything is book accurate!

“She said that certain facts are accessible only from one point of view—the point of view of the creature who experiences them. You think she meant that the only shoes we can ever wear are our own. Meg can't imagine what it's like for you to be you, she can only imagine herself being you” (133).

“Think of all of this as an illusion. She can’t hurt you. Nothing can hurt the samurai who enters combat fully resolved to die. You have

already accepted the inevitability of termination, as they say. Still, you’d rather not have to sit through this” (135).

“‘Not so dark that she couldn’t see you were her ticket out of Trailer Park Land. Bright lights, big city” (151).

👀

“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” (167).