March Book Club: “Bright, Precious Days”- by Jay McInerney

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. .

“Russell was no different from any other denizen of the city in his need to be recognized and coddled in his own corner of the metropolis.” When Jeff Pierce, their friend’s posthumous, autobiographical novel receives 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. Bright, Precious Days presents 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

REVIEW

Most of us who attended the book club meeting agreed that the book was well written but the subject and the characters of the novel were not to our taste. Four members completed the book and the rest started but didn’t finish reading it. Personally, I felt that the characters and plot were written for and would be enjoyed by a younger, 25-40 year old, reader. It poses problems a professional set of friends, working and living in the large cities of today’s western societies often face: cost of living, often living beyond their means, ‘keeping up with the Jones’, drug use, breakdown of relationships, uncertainty of work and financial crashes beyond their control. The novel, at best, was an insight into the cut throat life of living in modern New York. 

Author: Jay McInerney

Book review written by Margaret Cassidy