Bright, Precious Days
-
- £12.99
-
- £12.99
Publisher Description
Russell and Corrine Calloway have spent half their lives in the bright lights of New York. Theirs is the generation that flew too close to the sun on wings of cocaine – and whose lives changed irrevocably when planes crashed into the Twin Towers. Now, in 2008, Russell runs his own publishing house and Corrine manages a food redistribution programme. He clings to their loft and the illusion of downtown bohemia, while she longs to have more space for their twelve-year-old twins.
Although they try to forget each other's past indiscretions, when Jeff Pierce's posthumous, autobiographical novel garners a new cult following, the memory of their friend begins to haunt the couple, and their marriage feels increasingly unstable. Not helped by the reappearance of Corrine's former lover, Luke McGavock, whose ardour seems no cooler despite having a beautiful new wife in tow.
Acutely observed and brilliantly told, Bright, Precious Days dissects the moral complexities of relationships, while painting a portrait of New York as Obama and Clinton battle for leadership and the collapse of Lehman Brothers looms. A moving, deeply humane novel about the mistakes we make, persistence in struggle and love's ability to adapt and survive, it confirms McInerney as a great chronicler of our times.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
