Jay McInerney, the American writer indelibly associated with New York, is calling from Malibu, California, where he has a home with his fourth wife, publishing heiress Anne Hearst. At 71, he is about to publish his 12th novel, See You on the Other Side, the fourth and final instalment of his series following New York socialites Russell and Corinne Calloway.
The series began with Brightness Falls (1992) and continued through The Good Life (2006) and Bright, Precious Days (2016). In the new novel, the Calloways are in their sixties, grappling with ageing, Covid-19, and the melancholy of their gilded world. McInerney describes it as 'elegiac and autumnal', and confirms it is the last book in the series, not wanting to follow the characters 'all the way to the rest home'.
McInerney has often used the Calloways as avatars for his own life. He spent much of 2024 in hospital for two major surgeries, on his brain and heart, which he describes as 'two brushes with mortality'. The novel allowed him to address his own health problems through fiction.
McInerney burst onto the literary scene in 1984 with Bright Lights, Big City, a debut novel told in the second person that made him famous. A 1988 film adaptation starring Michael J Fox followed. He later became part of a literary group with Bret Easton Ellis and Tama Janowitz, known for their youthful style and talent.
McInerney says he wanted to expand his reach with the Calloway series, showing that literary writers can do what detective novelists do by bringing characters back over time. He notes that affairs remain a part of life for his ageing characters, reflecting his belief that certain human experiences persist across generations.
