The narrat or's name is Connor McKnight. If you haven't caught on, the plot of the book is the same as Bright Lights, Big City . It s not like Bright Lights, not eerily and meaningfully similar, but the same damn thing. This is unacceptable to those of us who already own Bri ght Lights . This does not, however, have the effect of a groundbreaking literary device.
Most books settle for chapters that indicate significant shifts in tone or se tting.
This book packs a short chapter every page, frequently in the middle of dialogue. If mo re thought had been given to the execution of the narrative, these gimmicky devices wouldn't be necessary. The rest are anecdotal. Characters are either transparencies or parodies, and the reader s most comple x narrative task is to keep track of who is a pseudonym for whom. The narrator's professed seven years in Japan studying Zen Buddhism, as well as McInerney's own time spent in Japan following college, lend themselves to this reading.