Set in New York, McInerney's spiritual homeland, this, his sixth novel, marks an obvious, too obvious, return to the world of his debut Bright Lights, Big City (1984). Connor McKnight the narrator is a hopeless young man living with a model-girl girlfriend named Philomena whom he loses. Working as a journalist specialising in celebrity interviews with the dim and famous, he exists in a round of restaurants and gossip. In addition to this is his crazed sister, Dad who clearly never grew up and Mom a kindly drunk. Funny-ish, but far from his best, which is Brightness Falls. Most readers, even his fans, could live without this one.
