Parallels are frequently drawn between Exley's life and writing and that of F. Scott Fitzgerald; some reviewers claim closer comparisons still between A Fan's Notes and The Great Gatsby (1925). According to Adams, like Fitzgerald, Exley is concerned with "public confession of mental illness, alcoholism, and the inability to handle success." In the tradition of Nathaniel Hawthorne, he explores the twin themes of guilt and shame.

Exley joins contemporaneous authors Herbert Gold, Gore Vidal, and Norman Mailer in manipulating the memoir-asnovel form. His penchant for calling all drafted prose "notes" suggests the psychic incompletion with which even his published personas must contend.

Although largely laudatory when situating Exley among writers weaned on the novels of the "lost generation," not all reviewers are unfailingly kind.

Alfred Kazin says: "like so many new American writers, [Exley] grew up on 20th century novels, he would rather be Nick Carraway than...