Literary Stars in Eclipse

They’ve been inextricably linked--often against their wills--since they made their first literary splashes back in the cocaine-laced ‘80s: Jay McInerney, Tama Janowitz and Bret Easton Ellis.

Why they’ve been so linked could make for a master’s thesis. Did they share common literary impulses? Did they offer complementary views of decadence in the shadow of neo-Victorian Reaganism? Or were they simply bound together by publicity and media machines that happened to hit their stride at the same time?

The question now, as the Bret Pack hovers on either side of 40, is, “Did they have legs?” The answer depends on how you measure.

McInerney’s debut, “Bright Lights, Big City” (Vintage, 1984), was hailed in some quarters as a fictional expose of the dark side of yuppiehood; Ellis’ “Less Than Zero” (Simon & Schuster, 1985) debut did the same for directionless rich kids in Los Angeles; Janowitz’s first novel, “American Dad” (Putnam, 1981), was widely ignored, but her collection “Slaves of New York” (Crown, 1986), detailing attitudes among the New York set, added her to Manhattan’s Unholy Trinity.

All three writers have continued to publish at sporadic paces. McInerney and Ellis, who both recently released novels about the fashion world, remain fixated on shallowness even after settling into the celebrity culture they satirize. Janowitz, whose first book since 1996’s “By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee” (Crown) is due out in July, has broadened her focus. But like Ellis and McInerney, she still suffers from a lack of empathy from critics.

Now shift back 20 years, to the voices of the Bret Pack’s parents’ generation: John Updike, Philip Roth and Joyce Carol Oates.

Updike, like Ellis, focused then on the emptiness behind consumer culture. By the time he was 34--Ellis’ age now--Updike had won a National Book Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and established Rabbit Angstrom as the embodiment of the conflict between physical impulse and spiritual need.

Janowitz’s upcoming novel will be her sixth book of fiction. By the time Oates was 42--Janowitz’s age when the book comes out this summer--she had published a dozen novels plus volumes of essays, short stories and poetry, won a National Book Award, and co-founded the respected Ontario Review literary journal.

Roth shares McInerney’s sense of satire. By the time he was 44, McInerney’s current age, Roth also had won a National Book Award, published “Goodbye, Columbus” and “Portnoy’s Complaint,” and introduced Nathan Zuckerman in “My Life as a Man.”

Such comparisons are always problematic. Few writers of any generation can match Oates’ publishing pace or reach, from poetry and short stories to criticism, essays on boxing and pseudonymous thrillers.

For critic Adam Begley, the differences lie in talent, approach and perseverance. Where Updike, Roth and Oates are writers first and only reluctantly celebrities, the Bret Pack seemed to seek celebrity before literary standing.

“They aren’t even good writers for their generation,” says Begley, book editor for the New York Observer. “I could name five people exactly their age who write much better than they do. Each in his own way lacks the talent and brains to turn out really good novels in succession. Ellis has more talent but has only one not very interesting thought. McInerney is no dummy, but he lacks the natural gift that carries you through the thin patches. They are celebrity types, and they have very powerful agents and publishers.”