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Jay McInerney’s novel Bright, Precious Days is part of a trilogy that started with Brightness Falls in 1992 and followed by The Good Life in 2006. All three books are about the same characters, Russell and Corrine Calloway, but having never read the previous two novels I went into Bright, Precious Days with a clean slate. I’m really enjoying the book so far, and I’m guessing that it’s not all that important to read the other books before this one. I like this quote from a New Yorker review of McInerney’s newest novel: “Nobody has a more exquisite appreciation than McInerney of the morbid, hypervigilant sensitivity we tend to harbor about our place in the world, especially when we’re feeling down.” If you’ve never read any of his books, that should give you an idea of the type of things he writes about. I loved Bright Lights, Big City, so if you’re going to read only one of his books, I’d go with that one. But why limit yourself, right? Bright, Precious Days is also a good choice, if only for all the gossipy dialogue.
What are you reading?