Product Description

In the shadow of 9/11, a story of love, family and conflicting
desires

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50250 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-05
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Arena
`A tender analysis of the slow disintegration of two young
families ... Moving, thoughtful and altogether surprising'

Tatler
`McInerney writes with compassion and wit and is never better than
when observing the social mores of his contemporaries'

James Frey
`His best book since Bright Lights, Big City ... a very subtle,
incredibly insightful, heartbreaking story'

Customer Reviews

Love and death
I've read McInerney's "Brightness Falls" twice, and greatly enjoyed its portrayal of a specific historical event (the stock market crash of 1987) and its impact on Russell and Corrine, a stylish, likeable but flawed couple, and their friends and life in Manhattan. In this book, he places them in the path of an even bigger event, and traces out their trajectories as their lives are shattered and remodelled in the wake of September 11. He brings back a few other characters from the earlier book, but also introduces some new ones - retired investment banker Luke, his socialite wife Sasha and their unstable teenaged daughter Ashley.

It's not hard to guess what the role of Luke is going to turn out to be as he stumbles up West Broadway, away from the nightmare of ash, smoke and death, and encounters Corrine, who offers him "a bottle of Evian" (even in moments of crisis, McInerney's knack for product placement doesn't falter). And, from that point onwards, the event fades into the background as we concentrate on their relationship. On the whole, this is probably a wise move, since writing more directly about the cataclysm and its aftermath is probably too challenging to pull off convincingly.

And McInerney deftly traces out the themes of desire, betrayal, duty and fidelity in a way that's thoroughly engrossing, particularly when he gives us Corrine's point of view. Only at the very end does he bring the story full circle with an elegaic connection between the way in which this all started, and the way it ends.

Worth a read
This is the first McInerney work that I have read and indeed the first novel I have read in some time, having given myself over to crosswords, su doku and the like.
I very much enjoyed the book. The scene is NYC in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, so if you like modern American literature, I should imagine you will like it very much.
I am now reading Brightness Falls, which follows two of the main characters back in the early 80's, also in NYC.
Overall, I would definitley recommend this.

The Good Life
This is a wonderful sequel to Brightness Falls. It gives insight into how New Yorkers reacted to 9/11, as well as raising the larger question as to how life should be lived. The characters are beautifully drawn and observed, and the writing seemingly effortless. I thoroughly recommend this novel. Fans will not be disappointed and new readers will be enthralled.