Jay McInerney The Good Life

The Good Life

Jay McInerney

Knopf, Feb 2006, $25.00

ISBN: 0375411402

Luke McGavock detests his upper class hollow life, so he decides to make changes to the chagrin of his wife Sasha, who insists she covers both of their needs with her activity to help the poor through elitist charity galas. Their teenage daughter enjoys the material life that his financial job covers. He quits his high paying Wall St. financial job seeking something meaningful.

At the same time that Luke is going through a soul searching, publisher Russell Calloway and his previous stay at home wife Corrine barely know one another anymore, though they raised twins that were initially sired through the artificial insemination of her sister. Corrine now wants to do something meaningful, so she is trying to break in as a screenwriter.

9/11 changes everything, as Luke and Corrine meet at a Ground Zero soup-kitchen. They are immediately attracted to one another, but seek comfort that they know their respective spouses will fail to provide to them after watching so much death and destruction. They turn to each other and begin an affair, with both wondering what is truly THE GOOD LIFE.

The deep look at how 9/11 affected the social life of Manhattan's upper crust makes for an intriguing drama, until the affair intercedes and brings the plot back to soap opera realm. The key four characters seems genuine, especially the before and after Luke and Corrine. Meanwhile fans will ponder the philosophical title in a world that is five degrees from a suicide bomber.