Jay McInerney's Latest Novel Fails to Live Up to Fitzgerald Comparisons
More than four decades ago, Jay McInerney burst onto the literary scene with his debut novel, Bright Lights, Big City, which vividly captured the glamour and desperation of 1980s New York. The book's spectacular success launched McInerney's career, drawing early comparisons to F. Scott Fitzgerald, another midwesterner who grappled with America's fantasies of wealth and social mobility. In 1992, Brightness Falls introduced readers to a fresh cast of young New Yorkers, centering on the couple Corrine and Russell. McInerney has now returned to these characters in See You on the Other Side, completing a tetralogy that spans decades.
A Clumsy Finale for Aging Characters
The novel opens at the start of 2020, with the once-bright young things now in their 60s, navigating issues like erectile dysfunction, marital woes, and concerns over their twentysomething children's job prospects. Beyond the universal challenges of aging, Corrine and Russell must confront the tumultuous events of that year, including the pandemic, protests for racial justice, and a bitterly fought presidential election campaign. Russell serves as the primary character, though the narrative also delves into the perspectives of Corrine, their daughter Storey—an aspiring chef—and her biracial boyfriend, Mingus.
At its best, See You on the Other Side offers the chatty, undemanding companionship typical of commercial fiction. Readers are left to ponder whether Russell will resist the extramarital allure of a hot young literary talent named Astrid, if Storey's new restaurant can thrive amid pandemic regulations, and if the aging couple's immune systems will withstand the virus. However, an early challenge arises: many readers will know individuals who endured far more during that terrible time, making the novel's focus on inconveniences like lockdowns and watching My Octopus Teacher feel somewhat trivial.
Verbose Prose and Underwritten Moments
A significant issue with the novel is McInerney's apparent struggle to accept that he is producing a potboiler. He frequently offers glimpses of more tormented and ambitious writers, such as the character Jeff Pierce from Brightness Falls, whose legacy haunts the aging friends in this book. Russell, a talented fiction editor, would likely have excised the clunky and implausible dialogue, like Astrid's flirty remark: "You have an amazing track record as a publisher. You've published some of my favourite contemporary novels."
The writing is often verbose and repetitive, with phrases like "He felt a stirring in his loins, an engorgement of his cock" and descriptions of cocaine as "the great social lubricant and love potion, the fuel of late nights on the town ... the fairy dust of his youth." This verbosity contrasts sharply with underwritten sections elsewhere. For instance, the tragedy of a disappointing fine wine receives more attention than the violent suicide of its owner, and a drug overdose at a Thanksgiving dinner is covered in just half a dozen lines. When Russell encounters his son Jeremy in tense circumstances, McInerney neglects to convey any emotional response, suggesting a lack of interest in these pivotal moments.
Focus on Lifestyle Over Inner Lives
Instead, McInerney seems more invested in detailing wine, food, restaurants, and real estate, often in passages that read like lifted magazine articles. For example, a description of Marlow & Sons in Williamsburg feels like a capsule review from Condé Nast Traveller: "They agreed to go to Marlow & Sons, the Williamsburg bodega-café-restaurant that was the mothership of the postmillennium Brooklyn dining boom." Russell shows no emotion during the overdose scene but takes "a kind of ironic delight at its every kitschy detail" when dining at an old-school Italian restaurant, reflecting on how younger chefs have updated the formula for hipsters and finance bros.
This bloviation reinforces McInerney's claim as a well-informed New York insider, yet an intriguing moment arises when Russell's curmudgeonly brother Aidan visits from Michigan. Aidan's disdain for New York stirs something in Russell, revealing a version of the character plagued by impostor syndrome and midwestern soul-searching. However, this depth is never fully explored, leaving Russell largely in lockstep with the materialistic values of his time and place, with little curiosity about those beyond his social circle.
Hollow Comparisons to Fitzgerald
The early comparisons between Fitzgerald and McInerney now ring very hollow. Fitzgerald wrote with great precision and a tragic vision of life that often clashed with the dominant ethos of his era. In contrast, McInerney's prose is loose to the point of absurdity, and he appears to fully embrace the materialism surrounding him. It is akin to viewing the world of Gatsby through the eyes of Tom Buchanan—a man clear-eyed about possessions and real estate but disinterested in people's internal lives or the costs of pursuing privilege.
See You on the Other Side by Jay McInerney is published by Bloomsbury, priced at £20. This verbose and clunky novel serves as a clumsy finale to a classic New York series, more focused on lifestyle than inner lives, and failing to live up to the literary legacy once promised.
