A long time ago, maybe 1990 or 1991, I read a book called Story of My Life by Jay McInerney. I loved that book. The main character, Allison Poole, felt like me. So much so, that reading that book felt eerily like reading the story of MY life.
Years later, when I met Bret Easton Ellis for the first time at a book reading, I waited in line for him to sign my book afterwards. And I asked him if McInerney had been angry that Ellis has essentially stolen Allison Poole, first in American Psycho and later in Glamorama. And Ellis told me the story of how that had happened, and then he signed my book "To Bn'B, who is so much smarter than Allison Poole". It is one of my more treasured possessions.
Today, I read that Rielle Hunter (nee Lisa Druck), with whom McInerney was both "intrigued and appalled", was the inspiration for Allison Poole. Rielle Hunter who, as it turns out, was John Edwards' mistress.
And somehow that ruins it all a little for me.
But I admit, I don't really understand why.
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