In listing his favorite books, novelist and, more recently, wine commentator Jay McInerney included Waugh’s A Handful of Dust. His own first novel Bright Lights, Big City (1984) might be considered a 1980s version of Decline and Fall. In an article in the New York Times T Magazine, McInerney explains his choice of Waugh’s novel:
This novel shows all of Waugh’s gifts for satire and farce, but unlike his earlier novels, it has a three-dimensional, tragic protagonist in aristocratic cuckold Tony Last.
Other books on his top 10 list include The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises and The Code of the Woosters.
