With Story of My Life, McInerney continues to chronicle a frenetic world of alienation and frustration, but this work is the farthest outside himself.

Using Alison Poole as a narrator, McInerney gives the reader a feminine outlook on society that did not exist in Bright Lights, Big City, or Ransom (1985).

Although Alison is a typical McInerney character in search of meaning for her life, her outlook on men, sex, music, and fashions differs radically from the masculine viewpoint expressed in the author's earlier work.