Story of My Life (novel)

The novel is narrated in the first-person from the point of view of Alison Poole, "an ostensibly jaded, cocaine-addled, sexually voracious 20-year-old.

The novel implies that the cause of Poole's "party girl" behavior is her father's abuse, including the killing of her prize jumping horse.

[1][2] In the novel, Poole describes her childhood and tells how her show jumper horse Dangerous Dan had suddenly "dropped dead.

][3]There was speculation that Story of My Life was a roman à clef when it first appeared; to New York Magazine's questions "Is it real?

In 2008, McInerney incorporated Hunter's affair with presidential candidate John Edwards into "Penelope on the Pond", featuring Poole, in his short story collections The Last Bachelor and How It Ended.

[6] Michiko Kakutani wrote, [T]here are some quick, funny portraits of club denizens in this volume, and some satiric renditions of the stoned dialogue that can accompany the ingestion of chemical substances.

It simply leaves us depressed at the shallowness of these people's lives, and at the author's failure to find a worthy showcase for his talents.