Product Description

Ten years on from Brightness Falls, Russell Calloway is still a literary editor although in a diminished capacity; his wife, Corrine, has sacrificed her career to watch anxiously over their children. Across town Luke McGavock, a wealthy ex-investment banker, is taking a sabbatical from making money, struggling to reconnect with his socially resplendent wife, Sasha, and their angst-ridden teenage daughter, Ashley. These two Manhattan families are teetering on the brink of change when 9/11 happens. The "Good Life" explores through the lens of catastrophe that territory between hope and despair, love and loss, regret and fulfilment. But, ultimately, this is Jay McInerney doing what he does best, presenting us with the life of New York City in all its moral complexity.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #170598 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
'This story is a simple one, but McInerney delivers it with grace and wit. He does what a good novelist should: he takes an abstract idea and gives it life' Alain de Botton 'The subject of The Good Life is the cataclysm of 9/11, and McInerney lays claim to it with the authority and conviction of a native master ... McInerney here joins a small number of dissident novelists, headed by Norman Mailer, who change the way we look at American history' Sunday Telegraph 'While those who read and fell in love with Brightness Falls all those years ago will devour The Good Life with relish, this is something which will appeal to those who have never read him before' Irish Independent 'Moving, thoughtful and altogether surprising in its portrayal of passion thwarted by circumstance, of all the 9/11 books this is possibly the only one that will pass the test of time' Arena

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

ENTERTAINING, ENTHRALLING, AND POIGNANT
With a New Yorker's heart and masterly pen Jay McInerney has crafted an unforgettable tale of a city and its people. It's a story headline fresh and fraught with the qualities that define our human predicament - some noble, others base. An astute observer, McInerney has a unique sense of New York City, bringing its streets and zip codes to midday vibrancy or nocturnal rest. He captures the quiddity of characters with a portraitist's skill; his brush strokes are glances, expressions, and words.

Describing Manhattan as "an existential town, in which identity was a function of professional accomplishment," McInerney introduces two families. Corrine and Russell Calloway share their Tribeca loft with 6-year-old twins, a daughter and son. Yearning for all that motherhood had to offer, Corrine quit her job which left a rather desultory Russell to be the family breadwinner. Now at work on a screenplay, Corrine is hoping to augment the family's dwindling bank account.

Sasha and Luke McGavock live on the Upper East Side with their 14-year-old going on 20 daughter, Ashley. Sasha is gorgeous, immaculately groomed, often wearing gowns loaned to her by Oscar (we needn't say Oscar who) and a constant presence at all the important charity benefits. Who people are, what they have, what they're saying about her - this is what matters to Sasha.

Luke is the son of a Tennessee minister who has amassed a fortune as a financial expert. He recently left his job, feeling the need to reassess his direction in life. Now, that he's at home he is acutely aware that his daughter has gleefully adopted all the extravagances of her mother and then some. He had failed to notice this, among other things, "while he was so single-mindedly pursuing his career, bring home the prosciuto."

As chance would have it, he has made a breakfast date with his good friend, Guillermo Rezzori. The year is 2001 and they're to meet at Windows on the World at 8:00 a.m., but Luke leaves a voicemail canceling their September 11 meeting. Guillermo, along with a host of others, is lost in the devastating attack.

Remorseful and unhappy that he and Sasha could not reach out to each other during this time of tragedy, Luke volunteers at a makeshift soup kitchen set up at Ground Zero for the firemen and other rescue workers. There, under the direction of Jerry, "a hulking , bullet-headed carpenter" he sets to his tasks, and meets Corrine. She, too, has sought solace in giving herself over to feeding others.

Their attraction is almost immediate, brought together by a cataclysmic event and disappointment in their marriages. McInerney's pictures of daily life by Ground Zero are unforgettable as we see how the tragedy affected the lives of a group of very different people. Their camaraderie is touching; their struggles to overcome sear.

New York City is this author's turf, his sharp eye misses nothing. With "The Good Life" McInerney has captured forever a time and a place. It is a story of love and loss. And just as the aftershock of 9/11 reached each of us, it is in one way or another our story, too. We could not have found a better voice to tell it.

- Gail Cooke

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.

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.