His novels include bright lights, big city, ransom, story of my life, brightness falls, and the last of the savages. The good life is mcinerneys most fully imagined novel as it is his most ambitious and elegiac. Instead, the novel is served best by the near perfect pitch and tone of mcinerneys portrayal of that difficult time. With bright, precious days, jay mcinerney brings his. 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.
These two manhattan families are teetering on the brink of change when 911 happens. The new york times the good life is mcinerneys most fully imagined novel as it is his most ambitious and elegiac. Jay mcinerneys new novel seems from the outside to be composed of the most disheartening elements. In this bestselling novel, the author of bright lights, big city unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires. Mcinerney bright lights, big city focuses his attention largely on corinne calloway and luke mcgavock, two strangers who have an otherworldly encounter in the early hours of september 12, then meet again. The good life, by jay mcinerney the new york times book.
With the good life, jay mcinerney has drawn that future in a compelling and poignant way. The targets of his fiercest barbs are the same people who obviously. Luke mcgavock, in the enviable position of having made more money than he can spend, has chosen to take a sabbatical in which he might recover the sense of purpose suddenly lacking in his life. In this bestselling novel, the author of bright lights, big city unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires, a. Jay mcinerney unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires, and catastrophic loss in his most powerfully searing work thus far. Jay mcinerneys new novel, bright, precious days, is the third volume in his trilogy following the marriage of russell and corrine calloway, two emblematic ivy leagueeducated manhattan. It began as a dissent from the contention, which appeared in these pages during the summer of 2005. The good life is undoubtedly one of mcinerney s finest novels, yet it seems unlikely to be remembered as the definitive response to the events of 11 september. Great book and great narration jay mcinerney captures the new york scene post 911 with great insight. The good life by jay mcinerney 9781408876961 booktopia. The subject ensures that mcinerney will generate more attention than he has since his debut bright lights, big city, 1984. A sequel to his 1992 novel, brightness falls, it takes place immediately before, during, and after the. The good life is a 2006 novel written by jay mcinerney. The good life by jay mcinerney overview in this bestselling novel, the author of bright lights, big city unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires, and catastrophic loss in a.
The good life on lower manhattan project, a french canadian site dedicated to 911 culture. Hes got a deadline and he leaves on his book tour tomorrow. His short fiction has appeared in the new yorker, esquire, playboy and granta. While reading it i was careful to look out for mentions of the events of the previous book or hints at a characters past that could only be explained by reading brightness falls, and there was very little. Mcinerneys novel of 911 and its aftershocks offers acute cultural observation before sinking into a sappy romance. The good life is undoubtedly one of mcinerneys finest novels, yet it seems unlikely to be remembered as the definitive response to the events of 11 september. Clinging to a semiprecarious existence in tribeca, corrine and russell calloway have survived a separation and are wonderstruck by young twins whose provenance is nothing less than miraculous. Written by jay mcinerney, audiobook narrated by dylan baker.
Jay mcinerney revisits ten years on some of the characters that populated brightness falls. The good life, a social commentary set twentytwo years later, skillfully weaves a love story into a tale that comments on and discusses presentday people and. Mcinerney first came to notice in 1984 with bright lights, big city, a novel about the cocaineaddled manhattan of the 80s. Hailed by newsweek as a superb and humane social critic with, according to the wall street journal, all the true instincts of a major novelist, jay mcinerney unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires, and catastrophic loss in his most powerfully searing work thus far. Buy a cheap copy of the good life book by jay mcinerney. He edited the penguin book of new american voices, wrote the screenplay for the 1988 film adaptation of bright lights, big city. Of all american metropolises, new york has become one of the most interesting and representative cities for writers, some of whom, after the 911 terrorist attacks, have tried to reflect in their fiction the consequences of this traumatic event. Now that the novelist is a couple decades more mature, the urban hipsters he once chronicled have begun to suffer from marital malaise and midlife. A graduate of williams college, mcinerney writes about travel, culture and wine for numerous publications including vanity fair, the. Clinging to a semiprecarious existence in tribeca, corrine and russell calloway have. Jay mcinerney books list of books by author jay mcinerney. Essential new york novels jay mcinerney on five books. Read the good life by jay mcinerney available from rakuten kobo.
On the evidence of the good life, the novel in question, he should have paid more attention to norman mailers advice. A famous drawing of by saul steinberg shows a view of the world from 9th avenue, the foreshortened perspective of. If you are the publisher or author of this book and feel that the. Hes a moderately popular novelist with a shallow intellectual range and a levelheaded narrative tone, and yet i felt inexplicably excited to read his new the good life, which is about two married manhattan couples before and after september 11, 2001.
Mcinerney has always been recognized for the felicity of his prose, and for the most part the good life is his bestwritten novel, although there are passages tinctured with bodiceripping purple. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and continue to read the 2 book series at least once a year or so. Ransom, story of my life, brightness falls, the last of the savages, model behaviour and the good life, two short story collections, and two nonfiction books on wine, one of which was the acclaimed a hedonist in the. Though a sequel of sorts to brightness falls, the good life stands well on its own. In the good life, jay mcinerney unveils a story of love, family, conflicting desires, and catastrophic loss in his most powerfully searing work thus far.
The good life by jay mcinerney penguin random house audio. In 2006, time cited his 1984 debut, bright lights, big city, as one of nine generationdefining novels of the twentieth century. Through the lens of catastrophe, the good life explores that territory between hope and despair, love and loss, regret and fulfilment. Time cited jay mcinerneys bestselling debut, bright lights, big city as one of nine generationdefining novels of the 20th century. In the good life, jay mcinerney unveils a story of love, family, con. But his wife is more than up to the task of spending and very. Near the start of brightness falls, jay mcinerneys fourth novel, during one of the books many manhattan dinner parties, a character named.
Jay mcinerney has picked a more serious backdrop for his new novel, the good life, but he cant help being seduced by glamour and wealth. With a little additional time for reflection, mcinerney might have. Ransom, story of my life, brightness falls, the last of the savages, model behaviour and the good life, two short story collections, and two nonfiction books on wine, one of which was the acclaimed a hedonist in the cellar. Last september, jay mcinerney wrote a curious essay for the british newspaper the guardian.
The good life explores through the lens of catastrophe that territory between hope and despair, love and loss, regret and fulfilment. The good life is about a group of privileged new yorkers who are led to reassess their lives. Hailed by newsweek as a superb and humane social critic with, according to the wall street journal, all the true instincts of a major novelist, jay mcinerney unveils a story. But mcinerney rather quickly veered into an account of his own struggle to write the kind of novel naipaul had decreed unnecessary. The mastery of the good life lies not in plot twists or stylistic pyrotechnics. Signin to download and listen to this audiobook today. This is jay mcinerney doing what he does best, presenting us with life in new york city, in all its moral complexity. He seems to know the city and its characters and portrays them with great. At his best, jay mcinerney is a scathing portraitist of urban life. Jay mcinerneys the good life joins the body of fiction grappling with the events of september 11, 2001, and the various landscapes literal, personal, political forever altered by that day. Jay mcinerneys 1984 novel, bright lights, big city, earned him immense acclaim for its biting social satire. The subject of the good life is the cataclysm of 911, and mcinerney lays. Twenty years later it is still an important book, and it has been an influence on a generation of writers, including me. The good life, by jay mcinerney the new york times.
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