Join us for an intimate evening with renowned bestselling author Jay McInerney. This evening is generously hosted by Stephen Javaras & Leo Chiquillo. Books will be available for all attendees.
“The tetralogy that began with 1992’s acclaimed Brightness Falls comes to a close with this volume, in which sixty-somethings Russell and Corrinne Calloway attend parties in early 2020 as the global pandemic encroaches. . . . McInerney’s always-sharp insights on social strata and human nature guarantee that in the midst of sadness we are also entertained.”—Los Angeles Times
“McInerney’s always-sharp insights on social strata and human nature guarantee that in the midst of sadness we are also entertained.” —Los Angeles Times
Once again brilliantly combining the lyrical observation of F. Scott Fitzgerald with the laser-bright social satire of Evelyn Waugh, Jay McInerney gives us the stunningly accomplished and profoundly affecting final volume in the tetralogy charting the marriage of Russell and Corrinne Calloway, now in their sixties, against the backdrop of various crises that have bedeviled our society in the past forty years.
The celebration of the thirty-fifth wedding anniversary of Russell Calloway’s best friend, Washington Lee—the least likely monogamist of his acquaintance somehow having become over the years a model husband and father—at the Odeon in the Spring of 2020 sparks an at once funny and moving autumnal reckoning with mortality as the specter of the Covid-19 virus spreads. In this moment of unprecedented upheaval—frantic and fraught real-time response, piercing personal and political impact—the Calloways find themselves and their marriage tested in ways they could never have anticipated as fatal consequences ensue.
About Jay McInerney
Jay McInerney is the author of thirteen books, most recently See You on the Other Side (2026). His other novels are Bright Lights, Big City, Ransom, Story of My Life, Brightness Falls, The Last of the Savages, Model Behavior and The Good Life, which received the Grand Prix Littéraire at the Deauville Film Festival in 2007, and Bright Precious Days. (2016). His short story collection How It Ended was named one of the 10 best books of the year by The New York Times. McInerney’s work has appeared in New York, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and The New York Review of Books. He writes a monthly wine column for Town & Country and was previously the wine columnist for The Wall Street Journal and House and Garden. Many of those columns were collected in Bacchus and Me and A Hedonist in the Cellar. In 2006 McInerney won the James Beard MFK Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing. His new wine book, The Juice: Vinous Veritas was published in 2012. McInerney’s screen credits include the screenplay for Gia (1998) starring Angelina Jolie and Bright Lights, Big City (1988), starring Michael J. Fox. In 1989 McInerney was named a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library.
Please contact Renee Lamarque at [email protected] if you’re interested in attending this special evening. Tickets to attend this event are $350 and support PEN America’s mission to defend writers and free expression at a time of unprecedented need. Your generosity is deeply appreciated.
About PEN America Authors’ Evenings
PEN America Authors’ Evenings are signature fundraising events that bring together writers, filmmakers, readers, and activists and give our supporters the unique opportunity to engage with artists in an intimate setting. PEN America has hosted literary icons like Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, and Claudia Rankine as well as new generations of luminaries including former PEN America President Ayad Akhtar, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, James McBride, Lynn Nottage, Hernan Diaz, Zadie Smith, and Ben Lerner.