The Good Life

jay mcinerney

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.

Clinging to a semi-precarious existence in TriBeCa, Corrine and Russell Calloway have survived a separation and are wonderstruck by young twins whose provenance is nothing less than miraculous. Several miles uptown and perched near the top of the Upper East Side's social register, Luke McGavock has postponed his accumulation of wealth in an attempt to recover the sense of purpose now lacking in a life that often gives him pause. But on a September morning, brightness falls horribly from the sky, and people worlds apart suddenly find themselves working side by side at the devastated site.

Wise, surprising, and, ultimately, heart-stoppingly redemptive, The Good Life captures lives that allow us to see-through personal, social, and moral complexity-more clearly into the heart of things.

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 fulfillment. 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.