Wrinkles

... PoughkeepsieJournal.com - Author's characters don't change much Customer Service: Contact Us PoughkeepsieJournal.com Weather Calendar Jobs Cars Real Estate Shopping Classifieds Dating 7 Days Archive News Business NATION/WORLD Sports Opinion LIFE ENTERTAINMENT VALLEY Guide Travel Obituaries Photos & Multimedia Books Busy Cook Verge ADVERTISEMENT Sunday, March 5, 2006 Author's characters don't change much 'Bright Lights, Big City' players back at old ways in 'Good Life' By Bill Konigsberg The Associated Press 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-obsessed, often addicted or, at minimum, painfully self-obsessed.

In the opening pages here, no...

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