Readers' rating:
Published Jan 2006
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Clinging to a semi-precarious existence in TriBeCa, Corrine and Russell Calloway have survived a separation and are thoroughly wonderstruck by young twins whose provenance is nothing less than miraculous, even as they contend with the faded promise of a marriage tinged with suspicion and deceit. Meanwhile, several miles uptown and perched near the top of the Upper East Side’s social register, Luke McGavock has postponed his accumulation of wealth in an attempt to recover the sense of purpose now lacking in a life that often gives him pause—especially with regard to his teenage daughter, whose wanton extravagance bears a horrifying resemblance to her mother's.
But on a September morning, brightness falls horribly from the sky, and people worlds apart suddenly find themselves working side by side at the devastated site, feeling lost anywhere else, yet battered still by memory and regret, by fresh disappointment and unimaginable shock. What happens, or should happen, when life stops us in our tracks, or our own choices do? What if both secrets and secret needs, long guarded steadfastly, are finally revealed? What is the good life?
'This story is a simple one, but McInerney delivers it with grace and wit. He does what a good novelist should: he takes an abstract idea and gives it life.' - PW.
'Inveterate Gothamites will especially appreciate this love story between kindred spirits and between city dwellers and their wounded mecca.' - Library Journal.
'McInerney's novel of 9/11 and its aftershocks offers acute cultural observation before sinking into a sappy romance....Though McInerney has a sharp eye .... the dialogue and interior monologues through which Corrine and Luke proceed with their affair would be embarrassing, overheated cliché even by bodice-ripping standards.
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