Brightness Falls

by Jay McInerney

Overview

Combining the lyrical observation of F. Scott Fitzgerald with the laser-bright social satire of Evelyn Waugh, Jay McInerney gives us a novel that is stunningly accomplished and profoundly affecting.

As he maps the fault lines spreading through the once-impenetrable marriage of Russell and Corrine Calloway and chronicles Russell's wildly ambitious scheme to seize control of the publishing house at which he works, Jay McInerney creates an elegy for New York in the 1980s. From the literary chimeras and corporate raiders to those dispossessed by the pandemonium of money and power, Brightness Falls captures a rash era at its moment of reckoning and gives reality back to a time that now seems decidedly unreal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679745327
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/31/1993
Series:	Vintage Contemporaries , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	913,010
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jay McInerney is the author of eight novels, a collection of short stories and three collections of essays on wine. He lives in New York City and Bridgehampton, New York.

Editorial Reviews

While the strengths of McInerney's writing are in evidence, the characterizations in this well-plotted generational portrait of late-'80s Manhattan yuppies fail to convince. A BOMC alternate and a three-week PW bestseller in cloth. Author tour. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The author of Bright Lights, Big City ( LJ 10/1/84) again offers an amusing and perceptive morality tale of Eighties excess. Russell Calloway, an editor for a major publishing house, and his stockbroker wife Corrine appear to be the perfect New York couple. Dissatisfied with the management of his publishing company, Russell organizes a hostile takeover bid and embarks on an affair with Trina, his investment banker. But he loses his shirt in the 1987 stock market crash, Corrine leaves him, and his best friend commits suicide. McInerney wryly examines the dilemma of people in their 30s who came of age with sex, drugs, and rock and roll and must now come to grips with adult responsibilities. Replete with ironic insight, wit, and style, this is highly recommended for popular fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/1/92.-- Patricia Ross, Westerville P.L., Ohio

Library Journal

Quick and compelling...a rich, detailed panorama of New York City life. The pace is Wolfean, with quick jump cuts from one charged encounter to the next. It's hard not to try to squeeze in one more chapter before putting out the lights at bedtime. -- Chicago Tribune

Sven Birkerts

The excesses and entitlements of the 1980s serve as the backdrop for this raucous 1992 novel about a pretentious New York couple, Russell and Corrine Calloway. Edoardo Ballerini depicts Calloway with a shade of swagger and self-centeredness as the publishing editor ruthlessly arranges a takeover bid of his own employer. Ballerini’s portrayal of Corrine is fairly straightforward, while still capturing her despair over a miscarriage and her steely anger over her discovery of Russell’s affair with his beautiful investment banker. The narrative is sprinkled with graceful turns of phrase amid the wild ride of sex, drugs, and power. Ballerini’s timing allows the listener to savor all of them. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

The excesses and entitlements of the 1980s serve as the backdrop for this raucous 1992 novel about a pretentious New York couple, Russell and Corrine Calloway. Edoardo Ballerini depicts Calloway with a shade of swagger and self-centeredness as the publishing editor ruthlessly arranges a takeover bid of his own employer. Ballerini’s portrayal of Corrine is fairly straightforward, while still capturing her despair over a miscarriage and her steely anger over her discovery of Russell’s affair with his beautiful investment banker. The narrative is sprinkled with graceful turns of phrase amid the wild ride of sex, drugs, and power. Ballerini’s timing allows the listener to savor all of them. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2016 - AudioFile