In Jay McInerney's world, men are writers with varying degrees of success. They are married to women who are pregnant, which may or may not stall their philandering. The wife typically knows what's up and either ignores it, aborts the child or asks the man to have his fairly healthy cat put to sleep as contrition. There is typically a back story salted with cocaine residue and lapsed catholicism. His newer stories always reference 9/11 in some capacity. In Jay McInerney's world, no one leaves New York City. Maybe a character spent time in China modeling or teaching English, or maybe there was a stint in Los Angeles. But home is Manhattan, and now that McInerney has gotten older, he'll concede to characters with suburban address. But never the main characters. "How It Ended: New And Collected Stories" reads a bit like a posthumous compilation. It is a mix of snippets of his old stuff -- including pieces from "Bright Lights, Big City," "Brightness Falls," and "Model Behavior." This is fun and feels like reading an old yearbook. It has been years since I've read any of his novels, and it was a nice reminder of whats-so-big-about-McInerney. [Namely, that he writes about a time and place that I'd love to vacation in: New York City. 1980s. Writer cliques.]Then he attempts to one-up the masterful feat that is "The Good Life" -- in which, 20 years after "Brightness Falls," he revisits the main characters Corrine and Russell -- and has them aged appropriately -- in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. In this compilation, he has a short story where Corrine runs into the character Luke from "The Good Life." Here, in the short story "The March," it seems a forced and pointless exercise. Hopefully the kind of thing that will show McInerney that if he wants another novel about Corrine and Russell, he should wait at least another decade. McInerney also doubles back to Alison Poole, the star of "The Story Of My Life," who last year was outed as a character based on the woman who would become John Edwards' mistress. Here, in "Penelope on the Pond," Poole is hiding out from the press in an upscale hunting shack, waiting for text messages and phone calls from Tom, her married lover who is involved in politics. In novel form, "The Story Of My Life" McInerney does a bang up job of capturing the voice of an insecure 20 year old with expensive taste, daddy issues and financial problems. The fast-forward has dulled her a bit, although, admittedly, by the time most women hit 40, up-talking and "like" dropping taper off. And this Alison Poole has wizened up a bit, but isn't interesting enough to check in on, ironically enough considering the recent-ish tabloid coverage of her likeness.Each of the stories seems a touch autobiographical. One finds four brothers, after the death of their mother, beating the shit out of each other at Thanksgiving. One brother is a playwright, whose recent play has the entire family wondering whether their mother had an affair with their father's best friend. Another has a man and his wife sharing their bed with a pet pig. The man only recognizing this as ridiculous when he is removed from it and sharing the story with a therapist. In another, an aged Lothario is about to get married. First he has some unfinished business with four lines of cocaine, cut with his Soho Club card, and an exlover looking for closure.It should be sad: That McInerney continues to write about men for whom fidelity is a phase that only lasts until the vet's assistant slips the character her phone number. It's a little like watching a middle-aged man navigate the produce department in his high school letter jacket. Saying "Oh, yeah?" to the kid bagging his groceries. "You shoulda seen the model I bagged in '87." But I'm a bit like a former cheerleader from that very same high school, who would see McInerney squeezing tomatoes and become dazed. Then immediately text my best friend: "OMG, just saw j-mac at the GS."
Double "découverte" avec ce bouquin, reçu dans le cadre d'un partenariat BOB-Points (que j'en profite pour remercier!) : d'une part, je fais connaissance avec Jay McInerney, auteur américain issu des années 80, qui a inspiré notamment Brett Easton Ellis, et avec qui il a développé un groupe littéraire appelé "Brat Pack"; d'autre part, je me plonge dans un recueil de nouvelles, genre que je ne "connais" pas très bien.C'est en lisant les résumés proposés dans le cadre du partenariat que je me suis mise en tête que je VOULAIS ABSOLUMENT découvrir cet auteur. Un regard porté sur la société qui l'entoure (d'abord celle des années 80) avec un soupçon d'ironie et de gravité. "Dans les nuits new-yorkaises des années 80, ils ont sniffé, baisé, multiplié à l'infini les fiestas déjantées. Et aujourd'hui ? Ils ont quarante ans, sont mariés. Ils ont abandonné New York, poudre blanche et orgies. Vieux adolescents aux regards figés d'ennui, ils contemplent le désenchantement et les fêlures de leurs vies."Sex and drugs, la déchéance, le vide de l'existence, les personnages de McInerney sont blasés par une vie dont ils espéraient autre chose (mais dont ils feintent qu'elle corresponde à leurs plans de départ). Ils me donnent l'impression de se mentir à eux-mêmes par orgueil ou fierté. A la lecture des quatrièmes de couverture on sent vraiment la "proximité" avec Ellis. Je ne suis pas trop fan d'Ellis (je n'ai lu qu'American psycho, qui m'emballait au début et a vite fini par me souler) et pourtant ça n'a pas empêché mon envie de découverte de me braquer sur cette nouvelle lubie. Je me sens plus attendrie par les personnages de McInerney, plus tentée de découvrir leurs parcours. Et je n'ai pas été déçue par cette première incursion. Chaque nouvelle présente à chaque fois un autre profil, un développement psychologique, le tableau d'une vie.J'ai vraiment apprécié découvrir chacune d'elle. La difficulté de l'exercice est d'accrocher dès les premiers paragraphes au récit, de s'intéresser aux personnages. Les nouvelles sont toutes différentes les unes des autres, liées par un fil conducteur, la débâcle d'une vie (encore le mot vie). De début 80 à 2008, McInerney embrasse près de 30 ans, plusieurs époques, on peut voir l'évolution des mœurs et du fonctionnement des gens, le côté sombre de la recherche de la célébrité, de l'argent et d'une vie dissolue.Le style de McInerney est agréable à lire : en quelques pages, le sujet est placé, le déroulement s'emballe et la chute fait "sourire". Très vite, on ressent l'amertume des personnages, on les déchiffre, les capte et souvent on a envie d'en lire encore plus. Certains héros sont devenus ensuite le centre de divers romans de l'auteur. Ce recueil est, je pense, une bonne entrée pour découvrir le monde de McInerney.Il me reste encore 4 nouvelles à lire. Débuté dans une passe de "panne" de lecture, ces courtes histoires m'ont permis de continuer à lire à un moment où j'avais un peu la flemme des pages.Ma note : 3,5 étoilesMoi tout craché, Jay McInerney, Points, octobre 2010, 345 pages
What do You think about How It Ended (2009)?
First thing I've read by Jay McInerney. I was hoping for something punchy, fast and sharp. Disappointing in how conventional it is. I keep wanting to score through exposition. Line after line laying it on thick - telling what was shown - spelling it out for the reader. That kind of stuff gets in the way.But what he does so well is create a living world. The old Bret Easton Ellis thing of jaded rich druggies is tired, but McInerney makes it seem vital and bright. So the stories work that way, and linger.The more I read the more I realise the importance of the title. Each story pegs its impact very much on the ending. Their endings, in almost every case, turn the thing around.But then again, it all ends badly. I mean it's just drugs, drugs, drugs and hey we're all screwed up on a decadence jag, folks. It's like eating a qualude and watching the grass die.
—Frank Dahai
For a quarter-century now, Jay McInerney has been telling fundamentally the same story: Innocent newcomer to the neon jungle gains the world -- or at least a book contract, a bespoke suit and a gorgeous girlfriend -- only to lose his soul. "How It Ended" presents a dozen amusing but ultimately self-indulgent variations on that theme. The short story is perhaps not the best display case for McInerney's gifts. His characters need narrative time for their world-weary carapaces to crack, revealing hidden depths and vulnerabilities; in the shorter format, their sardonic defense mechanisms come across as shallow and bitchy. (From the WASHINGTON POST, July 8, 2009)
—Mike Lindgren
Il crepuscolo degli yuppie - dieci racconti Sisisi, Jay McInerney ha dei difetti, gi� il fatto che sia stato il cantore del giovane professionista metropolitano normodotato - una specie realmente esistente a NY dal --- al ---, mentre in Italia dove credevano bastasse comprare una volvo dur� assai meno - pu� non dare grande momento alla sua simpatia, per� il tempo � galatuomo e ci ricorda che se qualche aspetto del cot� urbano pu� aver irritato le classiche menti umanistiche e sobrie, il fatto che Sarah Palin - la Top-Suocera, Hulka o Terminatrix, insomma qualcosa che sta a met� fra l'incubo e la realt�, abbia pubblicamente vantato che brucerebbe libri come i suoi, qualcosa di buono DEVE averlo. (se non altro il fatto che io lo abbia adorato per anni) http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/...
—Procyon Lotor
