Reviews
"Extremely entertaining. . . elegant, subtle, shapely and reflective. . . . Perfect specimens." - The New York Times " How It Ended reminds us how impressively broad McInerney's scope has been and how confidently he has ranged across wide swaths of our national experience.... He possesses the literary naturalist's full tool kit: empathy and curiosity, a peeled eye and a well-tuned ear, a talent for building narratives at once intimate and expansive, plausible and inventive." -Sam Tanenhaus, The New York Times Book Review , front page "A master of short fiction…. The characters [McInerney] crafts are so strong, the reader continues to care about them after the last page is turned." - The Miami Herald "Brim[s] with all the attendant guilt and thrills and self-defeating impulses of an extramarital tryst…. Brilliant." - The Boston Globe "Fresh and smart…. Without losing his early jokey way with language or his ironic wit, [McInerney] finds new depths of understanding." - The Oregonian "McInerney''s star burns as bright as ever." - Vanity Fair "Immediately enveloping…. This collection highlights a powerful contemporary American writer." - The Plain Dealer "Alongside old hits . . . [ How It Ended includes] an impressive selection of new work that touches upon his usual themes: money, marriage, and the social jostling involved in both. . . . McInerney's characters are engaging because they are continually falling into a trap that even their wealth cannot protect them from: They cannot tell the difference between living fully, and living without limits." - The Dallas Morning News "As this new collection stylishly demonstrates, McInerney writes with elegance and wit. . . . Surprising and affecting." - Houston Chronicle "[McInerney's] stories are so immediately enveloping and powerful that we don't notice how few words he uses to conjure his rich, complicated characters. . . . How It Ended is more than a victory lap for McInerney." - The Plain Dealer "Superb examples of the form." - Slate "Jay McInerney's collection displays his growth as a writer. . . . Heavy on sexual betrayal and social climbing." - USA Today "[McInerney] is so much fun to read, especially in short story form." - The Detroit News "They are hyped and hungover, rueful party animals and sapped social climbers, wayward spouses and strangers in the night. . . . Characters in Jay McInerney's How It Ended are fresh, fraught personalities." - O, The Oprah Magazine "A century from now, cultural historians will plumb the works of Jay McInerney to discern what life was like in the two decades between the explosion of Wall Street wealth and the grim aftermath of 9/11. His keen-eyed depiction of that period is generously displayed in How it Ended . . . . Perceptive and real." - BookPage "Sure crowd-pleasers." - San Francisco Chronicle "Sharp and precisely observed. . . . What's impressive is just how good-sometimes extraordinarily so-McInerney has been. . . . Precision is precisely what separates the short story from the novel. It's the art of letting the detail stand in for the whole, and this is where many of the stories in How It Ended make the cut as fine examples of their form." - The Toronto Star, "So consistently sharp and precisely observed that one is left thinking it's time to reconsider McInerney's career…What's impressive is just how goodsometimes extraordinarily soMcInerney has been…Precision is precisely what separates the short story from the novel. It's the art of letting the detail stand in for the whole, and this is where many of the stories inHow It Endedmake the cut as fine examples of their form." Geoff Pevere,The Toronto Star "A master of short fiction…The characters [McInerney] crafts are so strong, the reader continues to care about them after the last page is turned." Dan Scheraga,The Miami Herald "If you still care about top-drawer fiction you will want to own this book…Kurt Vonnegut said he was a member of 'the last recognizable generation of full-time, life-time American novelists,' but with all due respect to Mr. Vonnegut and his contemporaries, for my money Jay McInerney is the last of the full-time, life-time, American novelists." Mark Lindquist,The Oregonian "McInerney has been throughout [his career] a productive artistthis is his tenth book and his eighth work of fictionand also a diligent one, who has steadily refined his craft and rigorously deepened his subjects and themes.How It Endedreminds us how impressively broad McInerney's scope has been and how confidently he has ranged across wide swaths of our national experience. It reminds us too that for all the many literary influences he has absorbed, McInerney's contributionand it is a major oneis to have revitalized the Irish Catholic expiatory tradition of F. Scott Fitzgerald and John O'Hara…McInerney's gifts have never been in question. He possesses the literary naturalist's full tool kit: empathy and curiosity, a peeled eye and a well-tuned ear, a talent for building narratives at once intimate and expansive, plausible and inventive. His sentences, vivid but unshowy, exhibit the same strengths he once identified in Fitzgerald's; they are 'sophisticated without being superior, conspiratorial without the gossip's malice…' Both [Fitzgerald and Salinger] were 'voices of a generation.' So is McInerney. He was the first novelist born in the 1950s who throttled the demon of 'belatedness,' in Harold Bloom's term…the intimidating weight of literary forebears. McInerney and his contemporaries felt that, of course. They also felt the belatedness of having grown up in the Vietnam period but come of age just when its rebellions were being commodified by the unleashed market forces of the Regan years. Many novelists were struggling to make sense of this barometric change. But McInerney got there first. It is one reason his prose seems so free of self-consciousness and of mannerism, and at once postmodern and naturalistic." Sam Tanenhaus, front page,The New York Times Book Review "[McInerney's] stories have grown more elegant, subtle, shapely and reflective over time, to the point where some of the recent works are perfect specimens." Janet Maslin,The New York Times "Proof that McInerney's star burns as bright as ever." Claire Howorth,Vanity Fair "A splendid short-story writer, [McInerney's] stories are reminiscent of those of F. Scott Fitzgerald, John O'Hara, and Irwin Shaw…A very compelling collection." Brad Hooper,Booklist(starred review), "Extremely entertaining. . . elegant, subtle, shapely and reflective. . . . Perfect specimens." -The New York Times "How It Endedreminds us how impressively broad McInerney's scope has been and how confidently he has ranged across wide swaths of our national experience.... He possesses the literary naturalist's full tool kit: empathy and curiosity, a peeled eye and a well-tuned ear, a talent for building narratives at once intimate and expansive, plausible and inventive." -Sam Tanenhaus,The New York Times Book Review, front page "A master of short fiction…. The characters [McInerney] crafts are so strong, the reader continues to care about them after the last page is turned." -The Miami Herald "Brim[s] with all the attendant guilt and thrills and self-defeating impulses of an extramarital tryst…. Brilliant." -The Boston Globe "Fresh and smart…. Without losing his early jokey way with language or his ironic wit, [McInerney] finds new depths of understanding." -The Oregonian "McInerney's star burns as bright as ever." -Vanity Fair "Immediately enveloping…. This collection highlights a powerful contemporary American writer." -The Plain Dealer "Alongside old hits . . . [How It Endedincludes] an impressive selection of new work that touches upon his usual themes: money, marriage, and the social jostling involved in both. . . . McInerney's characters are engaging because they are continually falling into a trap that even their wealth cannot protect them from: They cannot tell the difference between living fully, and living without limits." -The Dallas Morning News "As this new collection stylishly demonstrates, McInerney writes with elegance and wit. . . . Surprising and affecting." -Houston Chronicle "[McInerney's] stories are so immediately enveloping and powerful that we don't notice how few words he uses to conjure his rich, complicated characters. . . .How It Endedis more than a victory lap for McInerney." -The Plain Dealer "Superb examples of the form." -Slate "Jay McInerney's collection displays his growth as a writer. . . . Heavy on sexual betrayal and social climbing." -USA Today "[McInerney] is so much fun to read, especially in short story form." -The Detroit News "They are hyped and hungover, rueful party animals and sapped social climbers, wayward spouses and strangers in the night. . . . Characters in Jay McInerney'sHow It Endedare fresh, fraught personalities." -O, The Oprah Magazine "A century from now, cultural historians will plumb the works of Jay McInerney to discern what life was like in the two decades between the explosion of Wall Street wealth and the grim aftermath of 9/11. His keen-eyed depiction of that period is generously displayed inHow it Ended. . . . Perceptive and real." -BookPage "Sure crowd-pleasers." -San Francisco Chronicle "Sharp and precisely observed. . . . What's impressive is just how good-sometimes extraordinarily so-McInerney has been. . . . Precision is precisely what separates the short story from the novel. It's the art of letting the detail stand in for the whole, and this is where many of the stories inHow It Endedmake t, "How It Endedis more than a victory lap for McInerney. This collection highlights a powerful contemporary American writer…His stories are so immediately enveloping and powerful that we don't notice how few words he uses to conjure his rich, complicated characters." Michael Kroner, ClevelandPlain Dealer "McInerney's characters get around: some go south to Faulkner country, some to California for the movie business, one to Japan to teach grammar and vocabulary to businessmen, a few even to the heroin fields of Pakistan. But the real habitat of his fiction is New York. As it did for Walt Whitman, Thomas Wolfe, Frank O'Hara and an army of others, the city becomes embedded as a symbol of longing with each new detail of grit and squalor…McInerney seems to have constructed a series of laments for lost or diminished civic values, personal fidelity, psychological wholeness, even holiness. Nowhere in this book does he put a foot wrong. He has certainly earned the frequently made comparisons of his skills in short fiction with those of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. This is a first-rate book, not to be missed." Richard Greene,The National Post[Toronto] "A great capturer of all time periods and trends…sending up society in a wry but spot-on and smart manner [with] an intellectual wit that is imagery-filled." Kara Nesvig, Minnesota Daily "So consistently sharp and precisely observed that one is left thinking it's time to reconsider McInerney's career…What's impressive is just how goodsometimes extraordinarily soMcInerney has been…Precision is precisely what separates the short story from the novel. It's the art of letting the detail stand in for the whole, and this is where many of the stories inHow It Endedmake the cut as fine examples of their form." Geoff Pevere,The Toronto Star "A master of short fiction…The characters [McInerney] crafts are so strong, the reader continues to care about them after the last page is turned." Dan Scheraga,The Miami Herald "If you still care about top-drawer fiction you will want to own this book…Kurt Vonnegut said he was a member of 'the last recognizable generation of full-time, life-time American novelists,' but with all due respect to Mr. Vonnegut and his contemporaries, for my money Jay McInerney is the last of the full-time, life-time, American novelists." Mark Lindquist,The Oregonian "McInerney has been throughout [his career] a productive artistthis is his tenth book and his eighth work of fictionand also a diligent one, who has steadily refined his craft and rigorously deepened his subjects and themes.How It Endedreminds us how impressively broad McInerney's scope has been and how confidently he has ranged across wide swaths of our national experience. It reminds us too that for all the many literary influences he has absorbed, McInerney's contributionand it is a major oneis to have revitalized the Irish Catholic expiatory tradition of F. Scott Fitzgerald and John O'Hara…McInerney's gifts have never been in question. He possesses the literary naturalist's full tool kit: empathy and curiosity, a peeled eye and a well-tuned ear, a talent for building narratives at once intimate and expansive, plausible and inventive. His sentences, vivid but unshowy, exhibit the same strengths he once identified in Fitzgerald's; they are 'sophisticated without being superi
