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caitlinhume's review
4.0
4.5. Not as riveting as my other "must reads", but this book will do very well with about certain audiences.
elemmire's review
3.0
The characters are interesting, and well developed, but they are nearly impossible to like. It's a great look into the time leading up to the most recent financial collapse, through the eyes of New Yorkers. The woman love the drama of other peoples divorces and eating disorders. The men have their big business deals. Artists struggling with fame and drugs. Everyone pretending everything is perfect and that their affairs will never be uncovered.
Not my favorite kind of story. I find it irritating in many ways. The writing is okay, but no solid plot. One of the more realistic ones about NYC I've ever read.
Not my favorite kind of story. I find it irritating in many ways. The writing is okay, but no solid plot. One of the more realistic ones about NYC I've ever read.
anitaashland's review
4.0
It was nice to revisit these characters again and check in with Corrine and Russell now that they are in their 50's. I especially liked the glimpse into the NYC publishing industry.
machadofam8's review
3.0
A satisfying chapter in the lives of Corrine and Russell and the usual cast of characters.
rocketiza's review
3.0
Well I had a hard time caring about the characters, it did keep me entertained and had some great passages in it.
nixieknox's review
4.0
Although I have no recollection of these characters or the storyline, I did in fact read The Good Life. No matter - I thoroughly enjoyed this as a stand-alone. I love when protagonists surreptitiously out their character flaws - Corrine and her eating disorder, Russell and his philandering - and I tried not to get too annoyed at the NPR/liberal demographic, even though describing themselves as "poor" was infuriating at times.
renaplays's review
5.0
Characters push against "the city (that) is supremely indifferent to their transit through its arteries." McInerney re-emerges as a writer to read about life in this moment. His style is almost old-fashioned, with sentences carefully crafted and yet smooth, and his characters reveal themselves and their plots with subtle sensitivity and a respectful understanding. A pleasure in every way.
gilmoreguide's review
3.0
Russell and Corrine Calloway move in all the right circles, but at the grand banquet that is New York society they’re seated at the children’s table. Yes, Russell owns his company, but it’s a publishing firm and while it has cachet it doesn’t have much cash. They live at an enviable address downtown, but in a cramped loft with one bathroom for four people. When Bright, Precious Days opens Russell is enjoying a bump in his literary success with a talented young author he’s just signed. It’s the heady days in the late aughts when the trauma of 9/11 has passed and the crash of 2009 is yet to come. Author Jay McInerney brings Russell and Corrine back from his previous novel, Brightness Falls, and ushers them into the angst of middle-age.
You can’t write a novel set in Manhattan without location coming into play and McInerney makes it the quiet crux of Bright, Precious Days. For the Calloways it’s a pressing issue, as their apartment is going condo and the cash to buy-in will be difficult to obtain. For Russell there is no choice
What he wanted to say was that being a resident not only of Manhattan but of downtown was an irreducible core of his identity. He was as much—if not more—a New Yorker as those who found themselves born here through the accident of birth…he and his tribe of restless striving immigrants from the provinces and the farthest corners of the earth, who’d ben inexorably drawn here and had made the city their own, who’d shaped it and been shaped by it.
If location defines you, then it is likely you’ll go to great lengths to maintain this identity and Russell does. What has always been black and white becomes grey as he maneuvers to hold onto the man he’s always thought he was. Truth and beauty are walloped by crass commerce.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-1NW
You can’t write a novel set in Manhattan without location coming into play and McInerney makes it the quiet crux of Bright, Precious Days. For the Calloways it’s a pressing issue, as their apartment is going condo and the cash to buy-in will be difficult to obtain. For Russell there is no choice
What he wanted to say was that being a resident not only of Manhattan but of downtown was an irreducible core of his identity. He was as much—if not more—a New Yorker as those who found themselves born here through the accident of birth…he and his tribe of restless striving immigrants from the provinces and the farthest corners of the earth, who’d ben inexorably drawn here and had made the city their own, who’d shaped it and been shaped by it.
If location defines you, then it is likely you’ll go to great lengths to maintain this identity and Russell does. What has always been black and white becomes grey as he maneuvers to hold onto the man he’s always thought he was. Truth and beauty are walloped by crass commerce.
The rest of this review is available at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://wp.me/p2B7gG-1NW
dcmr's review
3.0
Starts slow with annoying urbane characters buts gains momentum to emerge as a tender examination of modern marriage.
beardedbarista's review
3.0
READ BRIGHNESS FALLS BEFORE YOU READ THIS BOOK!!!!
Really wanted this to be as good as Brightness Falls but it was very lackluster and just seemed like a repeat of BF without an actual plot. I love Russell and Corrine and wanted to read more of them but they both end up being rotten and Russell can't catch a break which is really sad.
Jack is Jeff with less character and far less importance to the rest of the characters and that's also sad. Last point this book should have been published in 08 ... it's far less relevant now in both time period and for character reference from Brightness Falls. The book was still a decent read but that is all. I hate doing somewhat negative reviews... this book probably would have got two stars if I had not just read Brightness Falls.(which you should read before reading this)
I am doing my Drunken Book Review Podcast on this book with my drunken cohorts and it will be available soon on Underpassreview.com I promise to be even more detailed with how I feel about the book on there and also be more drunk than I am currently.
love you so much,
Really wanted this to be as good as Brightness Falls but it was very lackluster and just seemed like a repeat of BF without an actual plot. I love Russell and Corrine and wanted to read more of them but they both end up being rotten and Russell can't catch a break which is really sad.
Jack is Jeff with less character and far less importance to the rest of the characters and that's also sad. Last point this book should have been published in 08 ... it's far less relevant now in both time period and for character reference from Brightness Falls. The book was still a decent read but that is all. I hate doing somewhat negative reviews... this book probably would have got two stars if I had not just read Brightness Falls.(which you should read before reading this)
I am doing my Drunken Book Review Podcast on this book with my drunken cohorts and it will be available soon on Underpassreview.com I promise to be even more detailed with how I feel about the book on there and also be more drunk than I am currently.
love you so much,