Wrinkles

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19, 2006 People don't change Author's 7th novel, set in 9/11 N.Y., a stunning tale of love, and of loss By Bill Konigsberg Associated Press THE GOOD LIFE By Jay McInerney (Knopf, 353 pages, $25) Near the beginning of The Good Life, Jay McInerney's seventh novel, we become firmly entrenched in the author's familiar milieu.

``Hey, beautiful,'' a homeless man yells out to our passing protagonist, Corrine.

``I need a place in the Hamptons.

I need a movie role.'' The homeless man fits right in with this cast of characters.

Though McInerney's characters are older now - the once 20-something socialites and playboys that graced Bright Lights, Big City are now in their 40s - they still speak and act the same.

Despite the presence of children, added paunch and facial wrinkles, it takes just 41 pages for a woman to disappear into the bathroom with an unknown man for a quickie.

The privileged Manhattanites in McInerney's world are sex-obsessed, often addicted or, at minimum, painfully self-obsessed.

In the opening pages here, nothing has changed.

It's slightly horrifying, reading about these middle-aged characters who have not grown up in 20 years.

Though McInerney himself seems a part of this culture, he seems also to have the artist...

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