Customer Reviews

Spy Notes On McInerney's Bright Lights,Big City / Janowitz's Slaves Of New York / Ellis's Less Than Zero And All Those Other Hip Urban Novels Of The 1980s

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For anyone who had to read any of those dreadful 1980's "voice of his/her generation" books, and I find it hard to believe that anyone ever read any of them voluntarily, this sendup is a must. This sort of satire is what made the old Spy great.

Especially the send-up of "Rules of the Game", which succinctly illustrates how the book is little more than a sophomoric and pointless exercise in narcissistic blather.

The late great satirical magazine SPY took upon itself the duty of harassing those oh-so-fashionable novelists of the 1980's: Tama Janowitz, Bret Easton Ellis, and especially Jay McInerney (who got a cover story by his angry ex-wife.) This book is a parody of Cliff Notes and features SPY's trademark withering sarcasm. It's really quite nastily entertaining. Most of it was written by Paul Simms, who later went on to write and produce the marvelous sitcom "NewsRadio." (One of the authors mocked here at the beginning of his career is David Foster Wallace, who has gone on to reveal himself as a major talent.)