The Good Life

The Ending Left Me Hanging

I really enjoyed the novel and never thought I'd be rooting for two adulterers. I think the book is definitely stylish for it's time, and if you're a Manhattanite, you'll appreciate all the references to the city. However,after all the investment into the main characters' lives, I felt that the ending was rushed and incomplete, with no real indicator of the direction it turned. Forgive me, but I felt the author was a bit lazy. It felt as if he just..gave up towards the end. The last four pages or so just seemed to go in a different direction from the sentiments of the characters and then it somewhat fell off an unexpected cliff. Despite this, I can't take away from the overall story, even if I would've liked a different ending.

The Good Life Disappointment

Looking forward to this Novel, but disappointed, expecting the story to get better and better, it finally lured me in about 3/4 of the way through the book. Took me several weeks to read which is unusally and should have been a sign. The ending...total disappointment. Expected more and got much much less!

Get ready to understand what you don't want to.

You must read this book.
I devour an abnormally high number of novels, and rarely (very rarely) does one make my bookshelf. Instead, I slam, thump, and threaten to write to authors of books that don't cut it, and pile them into boxes (quite periodically) to go to our local library for their on-going used book sale.
Then, I hit one. This is one of those ones.
It made me root for two people having an affair. Never before has such a compromise of values pulled me through the book to the end. I won't tell you the last two pages, but, about them, Mr. McInerney is going to get a letter from me.
How far he has grown from Bright Lights, Big City. He, personally. This book could not have been written by an author untouched within his own life. This story is framed around 9/11 in such a way as to work, show, teach, allow, and softly let you into that moment of the world. His characters are credible. His characters are the best and worst of us, playing out their lives in the best and worst of the modern American landscape.
It's absolutely brilliant. Mark off two full days on your calendar, get in your favorite cheeses and breads, and turn off your cellphone. It's that good. Bravo!

Beach reading, at best

Despite occasionally scintillating writing, this book is full of selfish, self-centered, spoiled and oversexed characters who are obsessed with their image and who speak mostly in four-letter words. None of the characters evoked in me one whit of personal connection or caring.

Post 9/11 New York

Well written with a definite New York flair. Lots of great references to New York environs which is appreciated more with some time spent in the city

A Great American Novel

Jay McInerney proves his prodigious talent as a novelist in The Good Life. The novel takes place just before, and then after, the events of 911, and he handles the emotional lives of New York's survivors with great skill and sensitivity. McInerney has the ability within these pages to take the terror out of the terrorist attack and replace it with the strength and perseverance of its survivors. This novel honors those New Yorkers who died on that September day and celebrates the checkered day-by-day reality of those who continue to live on and seek out the American ideal of the good life.

9/11 barely a presence

The setting for this novel is New York and the 9/11 tragedy. Aside from the pictures on the front cover and back I did not find any images in the writing to make me feel anything about 9/11. I wanted to read about those images and remember because it is apart of my history. The characters are doing a dance with each other but I cannot determine which dance it is because the pacing is odd. The interaction between husband and wife and subsequently, their lovers is stale. If this is as the title suggests, then I will graciously pass.

Great Read McInerney does it again

Amazingly told story of two people, thrust back to reality after an unreal experience. This story, set in the early days after 9/11, will bring any New Yorker back to that reality and will provide a setting where forbidden love makes sense. McInerney takes the time to develop the characters and story and presents it all in the post 9/11 setting that we remember all too well. Highly recommended.

An Unpleasant Reality

Life in New York City has a certain rhythm to it on all levels. Whatever sector you are familiar with, it has its own way to exist. After 9/11 the melody changed everywhere. There was nothing familiar or recognizable from the past, only the uncertainity of the future and the fear of how the world had become so small. Characters are real and you can identify with them when they are sharing their grief, hurt and fear. The lives that they had are all up for grabs after 9/11. They are fragile and easily weak with emotion. The facade of the New York personality of toughness and coldness is caught off guard. But, the will to survive and to regain feeling for things is strong and slowly these characters begin to reassess who they are and what their lives matter now that so many have left them behind for reasons not quite conceivable. The city that seemed so strong and bold and unrelenting, was driven to its knees and everyone, everywhere saw it time after time after time. There was no way to diminish the pain and the courage needed to face it. This story was written by someone who knew New York and the people there before 9/11 and who admires them after that date.

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

The deep look at how 9/11 affected the social life of Manhattan¿s upper crust

Luke McGavock detests his upper class hollow life so he decides to make changes to the chagrin of his wife Sasha, who insists she covers both of their needs with her activity to help the poor through elitist charity galas. Their teenage daughter enjoys the material life that his financial job covers. He quits his high paying Wall St. financial job seeking something meaningful.------ At the same time that Luke is going through a soul searching, publisher Russell Calloway and his previous stay at home wife Corrine barely know one another anymore though they raised twins that were initially sired through the artificial insemination of her sister. Corrine now wants to do something meaningful so she is trying to break in as a screenwriter.------ 9/11 changes everything as Luke and Corrine meet at a Ground Zero soup-kitchen. They are immediately attracted to one another but seek comfort that they know their respective spouses will fail to provide to them after watching so much death and destruction. They turn to each other and begin an affair with both wondering what is truly THE GOOD LIFE.------ The deep look at how 9/11 affected the social life of Manhattan¿s upper crust make for an intriguing drama until the affair intercedes and brings the plot back to soap opera realm. The key four characters seems genuine especially the before and after Luke and Corrine. Meanwhile fans will ponder the philosophical title in a world that is five degrees from a suicide bomber.---- Harriet Klausner

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No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.