The hedonists. The provocateur. The phenom. The forgotten talent. In the decadent 1980s, an emerging group of young American writers on the East Coast was dubbed the Literary Brat Pack, made up of Jay McInterney, Bret Easton Ellis, Tama Janowitz, Donna Tartt, and Jill Eisenstadt. The name is a play on the Hollywood Brat Pack, which is itself a play on the Rat Pack. Their works exemplified the excessive highs and lows of the decade and helped change the course of American literature.