Bright, Precious Days

June 20, 2016
McInerney (The Good Life), in his first novel in nearly a decade, plunges again into the depths of married life in post-9/11 New York City. Hardworking parents to twins, Russell and Corrine Calloway are the embodiment of a strong relationship—the couple all their friends look to and envy. Russell, a respected editor for a small fiction publisher, pines for a bygone New York City full of energy and the vanguard of the global art scene, a way of life he tries to emulate at work and with his popular, old-fashioned dinner parties. Tired of her life of cocktail parties and charity benefits, Corrine left her high-powered corporate job in the wake of 9/11 to work for an organization feeding the poor. After reconnecting with an old fling, Corrine is thrown into a tailspin of dishonesty, betrayal, and emotional turmoil. Underpinning the main narrative is the story of Jeff, Russell’s best friend from college, who dies tragically young, leaving a novel behind for Russell to edit and publish. Jeff’s novel centers on a twisted love triangle—a fictionalized version of Jeff, Russell, and Corrine—and the wild days in gritty and glamorous 1980s New York. McInerney’s tale is an astute examination of the ebbs and flows of a marriage in tumultuous times—coming to terms with unfinished relationships, the struggle to stay sane during chaotic events, and the strength to rebuild in a city ravaged by drugs, terrorism, and economic depression.

June 1, 2016
McInerney returns to Russell and Corrine Calloway, the protagonists of his last two novels--call it The Adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Fancy Pants, Volume III: The Cialis Years." 'This is lily paste dumpling wrap around foie gras. And this is twenty-four-karat gold leaf,' the waiter [said], dusting each of the dumplings as Russell watched his wife's expression grow incredulous. 'And this,' he said, sprinkling what looked like bacon bits over Corrine's plate, 'crushed quail skull.' " It really doesn't make much difference what it is -- the women in this book eat almost nothing. Except for Corrine's daughter, the precocious Storey Calloway, twin of Jeremy. One of the many things to dislike about Corrine in this, her third incarnation, is that she's so concerned by her 11-year-old daughter's interest in food. "At breakfast she wants to know what's for lunch, and at lunch she asks about dinner. And she's started to watch that damn Food Network." Finally, thank God, she starts to starve herself like everyone else. Corrine was the moral compass of her set in Brightness Falls (1992). In The Good Life (2006), she found love at a soup kitchen in the ruins of the World Trade Center. Now that love interest is back on the scene, and she resumes her adulterous affair with surprising ease, partly influenced by her truly appalling best friend, Casey. Russell's career in publishing is a mess, cocaine is back--"it's not like [it] ever went away," one character explains--and the "jitney" to the Hamptons is really just a bus with a fancy name. After a long, draggy midsection, the end of this novel kicks into high gear, with a torrent of personal crises, the financial crash, and the Obama election, though a gun pulled out in an early act never goes off. Isn't that against the rules? So is this dialogue, or at least it should be: "Oh, Russell, is this it? Roses once a year and maybe an obligatory drunken fuck? We're fifty years old. Where's the romance?"Whether you love him or hate him, this novel is just what you're expecting from McInerney. So he must be doing it on purpose.

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Starred review from June 1, 2016
Russell and Corrine Calloway, the couple who anchored McInerney's Brightness Falls (1992), are seemingly thriving. Corrine's passionate post-9/11 affair, chronicled in The Good Life (2006), is over, and they navigate Manhattan's fevered social whirl as if they're born to itwhen, in truth, they can barely afford it. The unexpected return of Corrine's former lover forces her to question her happiness; meanwhile, book-publisher Russell struggles with the sense that the city is leaving him behind. He's always played for team Art and Love, but team Power and Money is on a winning streak. McInerney might recoil in horror to be called an old-fashioned novelist, but the author of Bright Lights, Big City (1984) has become one, in the best way. He chronicles both the social rituals and the changing times with a clear-eyed focus that other novelists have applied to Gilded Age New York and czarist Russia. Writing with full awareness of his characters' privilege, he has the restraint to not make them easy targets. In this powerful portrait of a marriage and a city in the shadow of the looming subprime mortgage crisis, McInerney observes the passage of life's seasons with aching and indelible clarity.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling, trend-spotting McInerney's continuation of his long-brewing New York City saga will pull in his many fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 1, 2016

McInerney, whose late Eighties-set Brightness Falls and post 9/11-set The Good Life featured Manhattan couple Russell and Corinne Calloway, offers a rich cultural tapestry that moves the Calloways forward to the late aughts, with a few telling flashbacks to the years directly after college. Back then, as "young idealists, ...they'd followed their best instincts and based their lives on the premise that money couldn't buy happiness." Now, Russell is a struggling independent publisher, while Corrine runs a program that feeds the city's poor; loft life suddenly seems less than appealing, and the Calloways won't be able to afford private school tuition for their twins in the coming year. So Russell takes a pricey chance on a big memoir about captivity in the Middle East, which could sink his company if it fails, while Corrine allows herself to be drawn into a heated affair when the man with whom she had a post-9/11 fling suddenly reappears. A secret blurted out by Corinne's sister, Russell's troubles with a young fiction author, an affair between two married friends--all enrich a story name-droppingly full of details about time and place that slides smoothly to its conclusion. VERDICT Fun for readers of literary fiction and pop sagas alike. [See Prepub Alert, 2/8/16.]--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2016

Lucky Russell and Corrine Calloway enjoy New York publishing parties and charity events, a Tribeca loft and Hamptons summers, and their miraculous boy-and-girl twins. But for this couple, seen in McInerney's Brightness Falls (1992) and The Good Life (2006), the bright lights of the big city are starting to dim. Independent publisher Russell earns huge respect but not huge profits, while Corrine is dedicated to programs feeding the city's poor, and that loft is starting to look too pricey. As Russell eyes an opportunity that could make or break him, Corrine struggles with the reappearance of the man with whom she had an unwise fling. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2016

McInerney, whose late Eighties-set Brightness Falls and post 9/11-set The Good Life featured Manhattan couple Russell and Corinne Calloway, offers a rich cultural tapestry that moves the Calloways forward to the late aughts, with a few telling flashbacks to the years directly after college. Back then, as "young idealists, ...they'd followed their best instincts and based their lives on the premise that money couldn't buy happiness." Now, Russell is a struggling independent publisher, while Corrine runs a program that feeds the city's poor; loft life suddenly seems less than appealing, and the Calloways won't be able to afford private school tuition for their twins in the coming year. So Russell takes a pricey chance on a big memoir about captivity in the Middle East, which could sink his company if it fails, while Corrine allows herself to be drawn into a heated affair when the man with whom she had a post-9/11 fling suddenly reappears. A secret blurted out by Corinne's sister, Russell's troubles with a young fiction author, an affair between two married friends--all enrich a story name-droppingly full of details about time and place that slides smoothly to its conclusion. VERDICT Fun for readers of literary fiction and pop sagas alike. [See Prepub Alert, 2/8/16.]--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.