Jay McInerney – Literary Art and Illustration

Mr. Smith makes a deal…

Jay McInerney authored three novels published as Vintage Contemporaries: Bright Lights Big City, Story of My Life, and – below – Ransom, for which Rick Lovell’s stunning cover art is equal parts simplicity and symbolism…

The principles of Japanese advertising, he said, were really quite simple. Gaijin were glamorous. If you were selling a luxury product – liquor, perfume – you used a gaijin, preferably a blond model, a New York, London, or Paris backdrop, and an English slogan. If you were selling a household product, you used a domestic-looking Japanese model. The interesting cases were those in between. Miti had decided that the sauna, being a service, ought to have some racial identification as well as gaijin glamour.

Miti asked Ransom what he thought of Sadaharu Oh, the home-run heir apparent.

Ransom said he was a fine ballplayer.

Miti said, Hank Aaron is a Negro, isn’t he?

Ransom said he was, unsure of the significance Miti ascribed to this fact. He went back out to his deck and struggled with the sauna copy, the construction of which was brought back to him that evening as he worked through Lesson Nine of Level Two with his Mitsubishi class, Ransom reading and the class repeating, books closed.

I make a deal.

“I make a deal.”

You make a deal.

“You make a deal.”

He makes a deal.

“He makes a deal.”

She makes a deal.

“She makes a deal.”

Mr. Smith makes a deal…

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With a pair of Samurai swords suspended above a gently flowing stream, a bird – a rainbow-colored Japanese red-crowned crane – stands in the middle of a gently flowing stream, the swords reflected in the water in the undulating form of a Japanese wooden foot bridge. More symbolism: Just as the swords are reflected as a symbol of Japanese culture, so is the crane: It appears as a red-hued bonsai tree, seeming to float upon the water’s surface. The orange-yellow moon (yes, it can appear that way) suspended to the side, above, balances the the scene. And completing the image, soft and undulating green hills recede into the distance, separating the blue of sky from blue of water.

Everything is in balance.

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References and Such

Jay McInerney, at…

…Jay McInerney.com

Rick Lovell, at…

…Rick Lovell.com

“Tell her you are suffering from amnesia and looking for clues.”

I haven’t read the book, but I remember the movie.

I saw the movie.

I really liked the movie.

I really like Marc Tauss’ cover art, too…

Open the drawers of your desk and you realize it could take all night.

There is a vast quantity of flotsam:

files,
notebooks,
personal and business correspondence,
galleys and proofs,
review books,
matchbooks,
loose sheets with names and phone numbers,
notes to yourself,
first drafts of stories,
sketches and poems.

Here, for instance, is the first draft of “Birds of Manhattan.”

Also the “U.S. Government Abstract of Statistics on Agriculture, 1981”,

indispensable in researching the three-part article on the death of the family farm,

on the back of which you have written the name Laura Bowman and a telephone number.

Who is Laura Bowman?

You could dial the number and ask for her, ask her where she fits into your past.

Tell her you are suffering from amnesia and looking for clues.

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The term “odeon” (via the Century Dictionary), refers to, “…A kind of theater in ancient Greece, smaller than the dramatic theater and roofed over, in which poets and musicians submitted their works to the approval of the public, and contended for prizes; — hence, in modern usage, the name of a hall for musical or dramatic performances.” I especially like the way a neon-lit Odeon, and, the World Trade Center, contrast with one another in shape, size, and color, their orange and blue nicely complimenting the violet color of the empty sky above. The fact that protagonist Jamie Conway (I suppose he’s Jamie Conway?!) has his back turned towards the viewer – amidst the city’s exciting glow – imparts upon the scene feelings of solitude and anonymity.

Really, everything fits together so nicely!