See You on the Other Side

In McInerney’s bittersweet conclusion to his Calloway cycle (after Bright, Precious Days), married New Yorkers Russell and Corrine again face uncertainty in a period of momentous change, this time during the Covid-19 pandemic. The couple, now in their 60s, have downsized from their Harlem townhouse to Greenwich Village, which Russell calls “the dead center of Manhattan.” Upon approaching the neon lights of the Odeon, where his friends Washington and Virginia Lee are celebrating their 35th anniversary, he brims with nostalgia for the “protean city” of their youth, when cocaine “made him feel as if he would live forever.” The guest list has dwindled, however, over fears of infection. As the days pass, Russell commits to what Corrine calls an “adolescent sense of invulnerability,” and they attend the opening of their chef daughter Storey’s restaurant, followed by dinner with a pompous group of Russell’s fellow oenophiles. The string of nightlife scenes afford McInerney ample opportunities for razor-sharp observations on Manhattan’s elite, as well as sensuous depictions of culinary pleasures. Darker threads run throughout, including the loss of Corrine’s mother, Covid’s grim realities, and the unstable bonds of marriage (Russell’s view of Washington as the “least likely monogamist” foreshadows trouble). The author’s fans will savor this sobering conclusion to an insightful saga. Agent: Amanda Urban, CAA. (Apr.)