Bright Lights, Big City is narrated by a night-weary member of the Manhattan elite who openly describes the seductive lifestyle associated with upper-class drug abuse. One is invited to join this youthful narrator in a fastpaced tour of private cocaine parties, rapid sexual encounters, and an absurd confrontation with a bald, tattooed lady who beckons from a smoke-filled nightclub. In each instance, the narra tor relates these uncommon events in a glib, shameless manner, that "matter-of-fact" tone which is at the core of the novel's controversial nature. For although most critics were amused by the evening escapades of the cocaine subculture, they were unprepared for the narrator's lack of penance for his sins. Mclnerney depicts the drug-dependent life as one of chic sophistication and comic resignation.

On the other hand, the errant narrator is subjected to a special brand of punishment which takes the form of...