46 pages • 1 hour read
Jay McinerneyBright Lights, Big City
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1984A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Ambition Versus Spiritual Malaise
Throughout the novel, the narrator expresses fantasies of becoming a great novelist, while admitting that he has little incentive to work toward the goal. His lack of discipline is exacerbated by his nightly excursions to Manhattan nightclubs with Tad, who encourages the narrator’s indolence and substance abuse. Within the narrator, there is internal strife between his desire for success and his inability to summon a work ethic.
The narrator’s laziness is especially pronounced in regard to his work in the Department of Factual Verification at a magazine that he’s long admired. Though he and Megan regard Clara’s attitude toward him as excessively harsh, the narrator never takes responsibility for his incompetence or thinks of ways in which he can prove his worth as an employee. He seems to take it for granted that he should be deemed competent without ever proving that he is so, which may be why he has earned Yasu Wade’s contempt. Additionally, he’s oblivious to valid comments from others, particularly Vicky, about how coveted his position is.
The narrator’s lackadaisical attitude toward what others would consider success is evidence of his taking his privileges for granted—believing that he’s entitled to success instead of having to work toward it. Due to the reader relying solely on his version of events, one can never determine with certainty if the narrator’s attitude of disinterest also extended into his marriage.
The Decadence of 1980s New York
McInerney’s novel is regarded as generation-defining because it encapsulates the lives of many young, upper-middle class white people—some of them professionals—living in Manhattan in the 1980s. Cocaine, which was the most prevalent drug during the decade, features prominently. It’s significant, too, that the narrator and his friends use only powder cocaine, which was more expensive and, like its cheap alternative, crack, was as much a sign of class status as the narrator’s luxury car and Tad’s Upper East Side apartment.
Using this backdrop of wealth and ostensible material comforts, McInerney forces the reader to question what success truly looks like. Tad and the narrator have all of the apparent signs of being successful people, but the narrator is discontent with what he has and, in both his personal and professional life, he feels like a failure.
McInerney depicts New York, and Manhattan especially, as a corrupting influence on both the narrator and Amanda. Both have become the worst versions of themselves—opportunistic, self-indulgent, and dishonest. The difference is that, by the end of the novel, the narrator comes to terms with the unpleasant ways in which he has changed. Amanda never achieves the same character arc, and the character of Tad remains consistent throughout the novel. Tad is a foil for the narrator, who initially aspires to be more like Tad and, later, sees the folly in that. Tad is also representative of the hedonistic lifestyle that consumed, and nearly extinguished, the narrator and so many others.
Lost Love and Loneliness
The narrator uses cocaine and alcohol to mask his feelings of loneliness and his craving for love. He contends with the dual heartbreaks of losing his mother to cancer and his wife, Amanda, to her career. Moreover, he spends most of his time with people who don’t care for his well-being, especially Tad, while avoiding his family and trying to turn Megan’s attempts to offer maternal succor and friendship into a sexual encounter to avoid dealing with his longing for true affection.
Sex, cocaine, and alcohol are all means of self-medicating. The narrator refuses to contend with his grief and his feelings of abandonment due to the difficulty of making himself vulnerable. It isn’t until he’s forced to confront his brother, Michael, that he’s made to deal with the hurt of his past and his last memories of his mother, which he was repressing. During these flashbacks, the narrator implies that he assisted his mother with committing suicide to end the excruciating pain caused by her cancer. After dealing with this memory, he recognizes his self-destructive behavior and how it robs him of the more peaceful and fulfilling life he craves in the company of a more suitable woman. His late-night phone call to Vicky is also indicative of the narrator’s first steps toward pursuing true intimacy, which only became possible after confronting his feelings of guilt about his mother’s death and seeing that Amanda had moved on with her engagement to Odysseus.
