The Good Life

'This story is a simple one, but Mclnerney delivers it with grace and wit. He does what a good novelist should: he takes an abstract idea and gives it life' Alain de Botton
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 fulfilment. But ultimately this is Jay Mclnerney doing what he does best, presenting us with the life of New York City in all its moral complexity.
'A shrewd, acidic portrait of literary life in Manhattan at the turn of this already frightful century' GUARDIAN
'While those who read and fell in love with Brightness Falls all those years ago will devour The Good Life with relish, this is something which will appeal to those who have never read him before' IRISH INDEPENDENT
'The subject of The Good Life is the cataclysm of 9/11, and Mclnerney lays claim to it with the authority and conviction of a native master... Mclnerney here joins a small number of dissident novelists, headed by Norman Mailer, who change the way we look at American history' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH