The Good Life

by: Jay McInerney

Published by: Knopf

Reviewed by Jackie Baumgarten

The Good Life is an unremarkable adult "coming-of-age" story. An exterior crisis rocks the world of a group of overindulged, self-focused adults. They are forced to examine (and realign, we'd hope) the fluffy values they've built their lives on.

It seemed to me that only one character even comes close to maturing. He is almost cartoon-ish, the 50-something newly retired financer whose socialite wife is more concerned about being the right person than doing the right thing. He has spent his daughter's growing-up years at work, ignored his heritage, and is drawn in to an extramarital affair. He at least makes a conscientious effort to make something good out of his bad choices as he recalls something his mother said: "If love is more than wanting, it involves putting someone else's well being ahead of your own inclinations and desires."

Maybe that's the point where real life converges with this novel. In real life so few people make conscientiously selfless choices of putting their own desires behind someone else's well being.

I wanted every character in the book to come to a startling self-awareness. Instead, most of them took the easy way out. Sometimes their choices looked like the right thing but the author subtly points out that while the choice brought the desired result (that of furthering someone else's well being), the character took the path of least resistance, and made the choice because it was the easiest one, not the one derived from self awareness, concern for the other or personal maturity--it was just plain and simple, like a lot of big choices in real life, the easier one to choose.

Armchair Interviews says: As with most of life's stories, there is little redemption in earthy actions--just like this book, there is no redemption in the ending, in any of the characters choices or in the story itself.