Neither "Dolce Vita" Or "Vida Loca!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                          After nearly breaking up, Corinne and Russell are back again.  Are they living "The Good Life?"  That question is up for grabs, because, after their boom and bust adventure in the Eighties, chronicled in "Brightness Falls," along comes 9/11, which irrevocably changed New York City, and not necessarily in a good way.  When the dust cleared, back came greed, greed greed!!!!!!!!!!

                                           As for Corinne, like Maria in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," she goes down to the workers, volunteering at this soup kitchen, where she meets Luke McGavock, who is really some big pussy hound.  He is married to some fashionista named Sasha, but he and Corinne pine and pant for each other, throughout most of the book, having an affair, which no one knows about.  Meanwhile, Russell is no angel, either.

                                            In other words, not much happens, outside of 9/11.  It is the same old McInerney corn, though he does need a good editor.  When Corinne goes to visit her mother, who is a riot of a character, she mentions the film "From Here To Eternity," and that Deborah Kerr's character was a prostitute.  Wrong!  She was an adulterer; Donna Reed won an Oscar, for playing a prostitute, named Lorene.  Get your facts, right, Jay!  Ironic, really, what with Jay having been a fact checker, and the novel more about adultery, not prostitution.

                                            The best thing "The Good Life" does is to illuminate vividly how 9/11 changed life in New York City.  The encroachment of suburbia, the dumbing down of its populace, the loss of edginess that those of us young enough to remember came to this city to seek out, is gone, and McInerney demonstrates how and why.

                                             As for Corinne and Russell, well, they have another book ahead, called "Bright, Precious Days," which I will report on soon.

                                             McInerney is still one of the better Brat Pack writers.  Let's see how he wraps things up in the trilogy's conclusion, "Bright, Precious Days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                             And then, that will be it--for him!   Enough is enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!