Morality and mortality in Jay McInerney’s new novel
Jay McInerney's new novel, See You on the Other Side, concludes the Calloway series with Russell and Corrine navigating aging, marriage, and the upheavals of 2020, including the pandemic and social unrest. The novel revisits themes of personal morality and resilience amid shifting cultural landscapes, while reintroducing characters from earlier books. McInerney blends intimate domestic drama with broader societal events, offering a reflective and layered final installment.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Eight years after the publication of 1984’s Bright Lights, Big City, that riotous and audacious first novel about a twenty-something man crashing and burning in the glittering streets and shadier corners of Manhattan, Jay McInerney broadened his scope and produced a multistranded, multivoiced work. Published in 1992, Brightness Falls documented the charmed lives of New York yuppie couple Russell and Corrine Calloway at the tail end of the 1980s. From the outside, they seemed a perfect double act: “Their friends viewed them as savvy pioneers of the matrimonial state” — a sharp contrast to the unnamed protagonist of McInerney’s debut, with his “marital Pearl Harbor.” But the Calloways’ marriage became strained, first when Russell got in over his head planning a hostile takeover, and then…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Washington Examiner.
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