The 24-year-old narrator is largely based on the author, Jay McInerney. Though the narrator aspires to be a writer and has fantasies of fame, he works as a fact-checker in the Department of Factual Verification at a well-known magazine during the day yet spends most of his evenings at nightclubs, courting women and doing lines of cocaine with his best friend, Tad.

The narrator has three brothers—Michael, who is a year younger, and his twin brothers, Peter and Sean. The narrator moved frequently as a child due to his father’s work and, as a result, has long felt like an outcast within an established community. His family eventually settled somewhere in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He attended an elite college before moving to Kansas City and working as a reporter. While there, he met his future wife, Amanda. While the pair were dating, they moved to New York, where the narrator got a job with the magazine. His accomplishments haven’t assuaged his insecurities, which are particularly pronounced when he’s in the company of women. He still loves and misses his estranged wife. He is also still mourning the loss of his mother who died of cancer a year before the events of the novel take place.