Jay McInerney, remembrance
Reflections: Norman Mailer at 100, ed. Gerald R. Lucas and Maggie McKinley (The Norman Mailer Society, 2023), p. 73; transcribed from the final interior PDF
From Reflections: Norman Mailer at 100 (The Norman Mailer Society, 2023), p. 73.
I first met Norman when he appeared at the publication party for my first novel, Bright Lights Big City, in the fall of 1984. He was one of my literary idols; I’d read The Naked and the Dead when I was in high school, and I’d continued to read and admire his work in the years since. One of the reasons I decided I wanted to live in New York is because Mailer lived there. He was at the center of the cultural discourse, in addition to being a masterful storyteller and stylist. So I was astonished when he appeared at Area, the nightclub where my publication party took place, in the company of Jason Epstein — wearing a trench coat. Mailer was probably the most famous novelist in America at that time and his unexpected appearance seemed like a kind of benediction. He shook my hand and told me he liked my book, which I had to assume had been passed along to him by Epstein, who was his editor and who had been responsible for buying my novel for Random House. Of course, it was possible he was just being polite. But then, polite wasn’t Norman’s default mode. I can’t remember any of the conversation after that, nor can I remember when I saw him next, but somehow we became friends, spending many nights together at Elaine’s and Indochine and Odeon. We talked and sometimes argued about books. We thumb wrestled, and he inevitably won. He gave me advice, about writing and about how to be a writer — particularly how to be a writer in the spotlight, which I had become. One day my girlfriend and I accompanied Mailer and his wife Norris to a movie premiere. As we were walking from the theater to the restaurant where the after party would be held, we were besieged by paparazzi. I’d recently started dating a famous model and the Mailers inevitably attracted attention wherever they went. Norman turned to me and said, “Beware of the flashbulbs, Jay. They can bleach your soul.” It was one of many sage pieces of advice he imparted over the years.
Jay McInerney