Wrinkles

11 as a backdrop, Jay McInerney's new novel about privileged Manhattanites comes up with unexpected answers Subscriber Services Complete Forecast Search Recent News Archives Web for Business Entertainment Living Local & State Obituaries Opinions Sports Back to Home Sunday, Feb 26, 2006 Books email this print this Posted on Sun, Feb.

26, 2006 No escape from the good life Using Sept.

11 as a backdrop, Jay McInerney's new novel about privileged Manhattanites comes up with unexpected answers BY BILL KONIGSBERG Associated Press "The Good Life" by Jay McInerney (Knopf, $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.

It's a scene that may as well be straight out of McInerney's "Story of My Life." The privileged Manhattanites in McInerney's world are sex-...

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