Jay McInerney’s first book, Bright Lights, Big City, published in 1984, captured the zeitgeist of the decade and help create the image of the Brat Pack. McInerney went on to write Ransom, Story of My Life, Brightness Falls, The Last of the Savages, and The Good Life. He edited The Penguin Book of New American Voices and wrote the screenplay for the 1988 film adaptation of Bright Lights, Big City, as well as the screenplay for Gia, which starred Angelina Jolie. He also is the wine columnist for House & Garden magazine. His latest novel, Bright, Precious Days (Knopf), begins with the image of the Calloways and a group of their New York friends sitting in a Tribeca watching election returns as the financial system teeters on the edge of collapse. The novel unfolds across a period of stupendous change, in which the Calloways will find themselves and their marriage tested more severely than they ever could have imagined.
In his latest novel, Bright, Precious Days. Jay McInerney revisits Manhattan, the setting for his breakout novel, Bright Lights, Big City, to depict a period of stupendous change—including the election of Barack Obama and the financial collapse.