Author dishes on Edwards’ ‘partying’ mistress

updated 9:28 a.m. ET Aug. 12, 2008

An old Jay McInerney novel featuring a party girl based on John Edwards' future mistress, Rielle Hunter, is getting a fresh printing from its publisher.

An additional 2,500 copies have been commissioned for "Story of My Life," according to Vintage Books, a paperback imprint of Random House, Inc. The book, first released in 1988, is narrated by a promiscuous, aspiring actress whom McInerney has said was inspired by Hunter — then named Lisa Druck — and a group of friends the author had met in New York.

In an interview with Extra, McInerney claimed he dated Hunter during the 1980's and was “fascinated by her and her friends.” He said he was intrigued but also appalled by Hunter's partying at nightclubs. “I saw them [Hunter and her friends] as a tribe that I wanted to study. And I ended up writing this book, "A Story of My Life," which is about a group of girls, five or six friends, coming to New York and conquering or failing to conquer the city,” he said.

Despite her wild ways, McInerney was impressed with the energetic Hunter. "When I met her, she was bubbly and fresh and honest," he told the NY Daily News. "She was afraid of nothing. She was doing a lot of drugs at the time — but so was I and everyone else."

As of Monday afternoon, "Story of My Life" was No. 470 on Amazon.com's best-seller list and was out of stock. McInerney, 53, is best known for the million-selling "Bright Lights, Big City." His other works include "Ransom," "Brightness Falls" and "The Good Life."

Edwards, a former Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. senator, acknowledged last week that he had had an affair with Hunter, who produced videos for Edwards as he prepared to launch his presidential race.

After nearly a year of denials, Edwards confessed he'd committed his own "serious error in judgment" as he was preparing to run for president, an affair in 2006 that he said he admitted to his wife but had hoped to keep from the public.

"In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic," Edwards said in trying to explain his behavior.

McInerney told the NY Daily News he was unsatisfied with Edwards’s confession to the media: “To say that he slept with her but he wasn't in love with her — that's not very chivalrous. He's trying to distance himself from her.

McInerney said that two years ago, Hunter raved about what a “terrific candidate and a terrific guy,” Edwards was.

“It really surprises me,” he told the paper. “She's not attracted to conventional guys — and Edwards, with his haircut and all, is a conventional guy.”

Six months ago, Edwards was among 10 presidential contenders asked about marital fidelity. "It's fundamental to how you judge people," Edwards told CBS News.

After the story broke Friday, Edwards released a statement that said, "In 2006, I made a serious error in judgment and conducted myself in a way that was disloyal to my family and to my core beliefs. I recognized my mistake, and I told my wife that I had a liaison with another woman, and I asked for her forgiveness. Although I was honest in every painful detail with my family, I did not tell the public."

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