Spy Notes on...All Those...Hip Urban Novels of the 1980s

1989, first edition, from Doubleday
The editors of Spy
Spy Notes on McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, Janowitz's Slaves of New York, Ellis's Less Than Zero...and All Those Other Hip Urban Novels of the 1980s
Bought newish for $7.95
Worn paperback
C+

I'm not the best audience for this book, never having read any of the novels in question, and not much of Cliff Notes either.  Still, the helpfully and repeatedly labeled "satire" serves the purpose of my never having to read these novels written by people who were a few years older than I was at the time they first published.  The Spy folks summarize and comment drily on the nihilism, narcissism, and ineptitude of the writing.  It gets to be a bit much, although this book is less than 100 pages.  Kudos on the Spy Novel-o-Matic, the sort of thing MAD Magazine used to do, albeit usually better.

This completes a short shelf that began with Cockburn's Corruptions of Empire.  I was able to move 1991 over to this bookcase, but I'm waiting to see if I can also move over '92.  That will affect the final distribution of the shelves.