Ransom

National Review, Feb 14, 1986 by Terry Teachout

The real problem here is very likely one of peer pressure. Forty years ago, when standards were higher and blockbuster novels were written by people like John P. Marquand instead of people like Danielle Steel, Jay McInerney would have been properly lauded as a charming popular novelist with a deft hand at satire.

Nowadays Bright Lights, Big City is brought out in the Vintage Contemporaries series and inappropriately praised by people who should know better. Turgid second novels like Ransom--not to mention premature first novels like Less than Zero--are the predictable result of this revolution of rising expectations.