Bright, Precious Days (McInerney) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
McInerney's multivolume, not-so-distant historical fiction can't help recalling John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom books or Philip Roth's second Zuckerman trilogy...the Calloway books share strengths with all those works, as well as an underlying generosity of spirit that is McInerney's own. The moral arc of his universe bends toward forgiveness.... But compassion and empathy don't dull a wicked sense of humor.... What [McInerney] has given us, after three books and across nearly 1,000 pages, is a portrait of a marriage in full, its strengths and weaknesses, its betrayals and compromises as vivid as you'll find in any medium. If a few of the plot threads tie up a bit too neatly, Russell and Corrine crawl their way to the final pages believably chastened, credibly wiser, still conflicted, like all of us. Endurance, in the end, is McInerney's theme, for both marriage and city. Battered, bruised, we're still here, catching our breaths, holding on.
Bruce Handy - New York Times Book Review


McInerney has long been a distinctly New York novelist, but Bright, Precious Days looks downright myopic in its focus on the rarefied concerns of a certain class of New Yorkers, their aspirations, their prep schools, their struggles to attend $1,000-a-plate charity banquets.... In one of the story’s most tragic—and apparently unironic—moments, Russell laments that he can’t even buy a $6 million house. (This humiliation adds "to his sense that the world as he knew it was crumbling around him.").... Still, as a social satirist, McInerney can be so spot-on that you want to call your housekeeper upstairs and read her some of the funny bits.... But despite the dazzlingly smart style of McInerney’s prose, there’s a wavering tone in this novel, a sense that the author is still lusting after the very things he’s mocking.
Ron Charles - Washington Post


Replete with the trappings that privileged New Yorkers, in particular, would expect and receive with self-satisfied smirks, it’s all book parties, gallery openings, tasting menus, prime real estate and summers in the Hamptons with a heavy pour of oenology.... It’s familiar territory for McInerney (in real and imagined life), a high priest of Brat Pack lit, whose Bright Lights, Big City debut in 1984 secured his place as a voice of his generation. And McInerney certainly hasn’t lost his impressive ability to tell a story, though the novel does get a little doughy around the middle. But despite his talent, the nagging feeling persists throughout that...deep down most of these characters are narcissistic, empty vessels. And, cultural sightseeing aside, that means we have no real reason to care.
James Endrst - USA Today


[The] brittle and evanescent lives of New York’s elite.... A highfalutin beach read, Mr. McInerney’s first novel in 10 years tracks Russell and Corrine Calloway as they struggle with the demands of family and business. He’s an independent publisher; she’s a screenwriter manque. They have two young children. They have affairs.... There’s rich material, but too often, Mr. McInerney defaults to style. Yet he does write fluidly and rhythmically, piquing our curiosity with his inside dope.
Carolo Wolff - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


[A] portrait of middle-aged malaise.... hat an author famous for slick, stylish evocation of drug-addled youth has evolved into a restrained, almost sombre chronicler of professional-class ennui may seem surprising. "Bright, Precious Days" is a far cry from "Bright Lights, Big City," the novel that made McInerney an instant celebrity in 1984, at the age of twenty-nine. But, underneath the glamour and flash of his subject matter, he has always been a more committed psychological novelist than his reputation suggests.
The New Yorker


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.
Publishers Weekly


In this powerful portrait of a marriage and a city in the shadow of the looming subprime mortgage crisis, McInerney observes the passage of life’s seasons with aching and indelible clarity.
Booklist


After a long, draggy midsection, the end of this novel kicks into high gear, with a torrent of personal crises, the financial crash, and the Obama election....Whether you love him or hate him, this novel is just what you're expecting from McInerney. So he must be doing it on purpose.
Kirkus Reviews