After working as a fact-checker at The New Yorker, McInerney achieved fame with his first published novel, Bright Lights, Big City.

Labelled the 'literary brat pack' in a 1987 article in the Village Voice, McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis and Tama Janowitz were presented as the new face of literature: young, iconoclastic and fresh.

After the success of Bright Lights, Big City, publishers started looking for similar works about young people in urban settings.

McInerney revealed that the character of Alison Poole is based upon his former girlfriend, Rielle Hunter, then known as Lisa Druck.

McInerney's roman à clef opened a prescient glimpse into the notorious horse murders scandal, which did not become known to the public until 1992, when Sports Illustrated magazine published a confession from the man who had murdered Lisa Druck's horse at her father's behest, in order to claim the insurance on its life.

[5] McInerney also has a cameo role in Ellis's Lunar Park, attending the Halloween party Bret hosts at his house.