Bright, Precious Days
A novel
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4.3 • 55 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From the best-selling author of Bright Lights, Big City: a sexy, vibrant, cross-generational New York story--a literary and commercial triumph of the highest order.
Even decades after their arrival, Corrine and Russell Calloway still feel as if they’re living the dream that drew them to New York City in the first place: book parties or art openings one night and high-society events the next; jobs they care about (and in fact love); twin children whose birth was truly miraculous; a loft in TriBeCa and summers in the Hamptons. But all of this comes at a fiendish cost. Russell, an independent publisher, has superb cultural credentials yet minimal cash flow; as he navigates a business that requires, beyond astute literary judgment, constant financial improvisation, he encounters an audacious, potentially game-changing—or ruinous—opportunity. Meanwhile, instead of chasing personal gain in this incredibly wealthy city, Corrine devotes herself to helping feed its hungry poor, and she and her husband soon discover they’re being priced out of the newly fashionable neighborhood they’ve called home for most of their adult lives, with their son and daughter caught in the balance.
Then Corrine’s world is turned upside down when the man with whom she’d had an ill-fated affair in the wake of 9/11 suddenly reappears. As the novel unfolds across a period of stupendous change—including Obama’s historic election and the global economic collapse he inherited—the Calloways will find themselves and their marriage tested more severely than they ever could have imagined.
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.
Customer Reviews
Five Stars
Truly exceptional, deeply poignant and laced with compelling development of emotional themes in context of characters.
The book takes a bit to reach a point where reader realizes the originality of themes and becomes connected to the characters--in other words, the book initially appears to be more pedestrian than it actually is.
Author's past body of work is uniquely engaging, and in a sense, this work is somewhat more "sophisticated" and literary than expected. The book is truly unique in the depth of its exploration of the complexities of marriage in particular, and relations generally. In sum, the work makes evident why it had taken author so long to develop/write, as it is densely packed with development of a number of themes that congeal very effectivelyin as the novel progresses and culminates.