The Good Life, Jay McInerney
The Good Life, Jay McInerney
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The Good Life

Author: Jay McInerney

Narrator: Dylan Baker

Abridged: 6 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/31/2006


Synopsis

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.Clinging to a semiprecarious existence in TriBeCa, Corrine and Russell Calloway have survived a separation and are thoroughly wonderstruck by young twins whose provenance is nothing less than miraculous, even as they contend with the faded promise of a marriage tinged with suspicion and deceit. Meanwhile, 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—especially with regard to his teenage daughter, whose wanton extravagance bears a horrifying resemblance to her mother’s. 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, feeling lost anywhere else, yet battered still by memory and regret, by fresh disappointment and unimaginable shock. What happens, or should happen, when life stops us in our tracks, or our own choices do? What if both secrets and secret needs, long guarded steadfastly, are finally revealed? What is the good life? Posed with astonishing understanding and compassion, these questions power a novel rich with characters and events, both comic and harrowing, revelatory about not only New York after the attacks but also the toll taken on those lucky enough to have survived them. 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.

About The Author

Jay McInerney is the author of eight novels, a collection of short stories and three collections of essays on wine. He lives in New York City and Bridgehampton, New York.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Glenn on January 12, 2016

Like his obvious influence, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jay McInerney has always been an astute social chronicler. His previous novels, one about the coke-filled club scene of the early 80s, for example, and another about the post-boom stock market mini-crash, seem almost trivial next to the loaded setting......more

Goodreads review by Scott on March 09, 2008

So, I've got this little disorder. Just this one: Once I begin reading a book, I am compelled to finish it. Regardless of how much I dislike it, I continue to pick up the book... continue to read. After finishing Brett Easton Ellis' excellent Lunar Park (see previous post), I wanted to read something......more

Goodreads review by Paco on February 11, 2021

Segundo libro de la trilogía de los Calloway. En el primero la historia concluye a finales de la década de los 80. Este segundo inicia en el 2001, año del atentado terrorista en Nueva York. Russell, Corrine y sus hijos gemelos de seis años, viven en Tribeca, a pocas cuadras de la Zona Cero. Solo habí......more

Goodreads review by Ted on May 27, 2009

Jay McInerney, Brat Pack novelist, Manhattanite extraordinaire and famed party goer, got the urge to step up to the plate and write a Great American Novel, a work that would raise him finally from the middle rungs of the literary ladder and allow him to reach the top shelf where only the best scribe......more

Goodreads review by Skip on June 20, 2007

It was trite fast reading. You never really care that much for the characters and they all seem pretty miserable. And then using the Sept. 11 disaster as a reason to launch into an affair is just kind of a cliche.......more