Although Russell and Corrinne Calloway occupy the center of the solar system which is Brightness Falls, a number of other characters recur, and even minor characters carry thematic value.

Jeff Pierce, for example, serves both as an exemplar of artistic brilliance and of the ravages that overindulgence can wreak on it. Similarly indulgent is Washington Lee, a black editor at Russell's firm who squanders his talents, parties too much, and refuses to admit that he has any responsibility to help black writers publish their work.

One of the novel's most interesting characters is Victor Propp, an obscure but famous novelist who is famous precisely because he has never published his second novel. In the world chronicled by McInerney, fame does not necessarily rest on solid accomplishments. Bernie Melman, for example, is famous for buying companies he disassembles to pay for his expense in buying them — in other...