Author Jay McInerney, whose debut novel, Bright Lights, Big City became a cultural touchstone, talks to the Associated Press about his new book, The Good Life (Knopf) and how 9/11 affected his writing.
"Immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, my first thought was that I didn't know if I could write fiction again," McInerney says. "It just seemed irrelevant and foolish at that time. You know, made-up stories, imagined characters - it was hard to reconcile with the urgency of the moment. ...
Later I thought, 'I'm a New York writer. I write about New York and this is the biggest thing that's happened in my lifetime and probably in the history of the city unless you count the draft riots in 1863.'"
McInerney's new book draws on his personal experience at ground zero.
He handed out sandwiches to rescuers and solicited elaborate meals from chic restaurants such as Babo and Union Square Cafe.
"It made me feel less at loose ends and less useless," the 51-year-old writer says. "Being a novelist seemed a really lame thing to be at that moment. One of my few skills is that I know a lot of restaurateurs."
Writing about the event was the farthest thing from his mind then.
But later, he hit on a solution: Concentrate on the implications of that day - the trauma and grief, but also the time when everyone briefly became their best self and reordered priorities.
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The Sept. 11 attacks came during a fallow period for McInerney, who was going through his third divorce and a bout of writer's block. By the time he returned to the keyboard, he had changed.
"I felt like I couldn't use my old tone ... Social satire and witty banter and elaborate wordplay didn't seem appropriate. As a writer, as in life, I've always been afraid of not amusing people. I've always tried, perhaps overly hard, to do so," he says. "I had to really rethink my technique and my persona."
Knopf has ordered 60,000 copies of The Good Life, which follows the lives of married couples and how the emotional aftermath of 9/11 changed their priorities and their lives
