42. The Good Life

This one was complex. It was a good look at how September 11th impacted New Yorkers... not ones who lost a husband or a child, but those who lived and worked in the city. It wasn't a true story, and who knows how realistic it was, but it was a compelling read nonetheless. It didn't have a happily ever after ending, atleast not by my standards, but, I guess a book about September 11th shouldn't have a happily ever after ending of any sort.

Here's the description from B&N.com:

Clinging to a semiprecarious existence in TriBeCa, Corrine and Russell Calloway have survived a separation and are thoroughly wonderstruck by young twins whose provenance is nothing less than miraculous, even as they contend with the faded promise of a marriage tinged with suspicion and deceit. Meanwhile, several miles uptown and perched near the top of the Upper East Side's social register, Luke McGavock has postponed his accumulation of wealth in an attempt to recover the sense of purpose now lacking in a life that often gives him pause--especially with regard to his teenage daughter, whose wanton extravagance bears a horrifying resemblance to her mother's. But on a September morning, brightness falls horribly from the sky, and people worlds apart suddenly find themselves working side by side at the devastated site, feeling lost anywhere else, yet battered still by memory and regret, by fresh disappointment and unimaginable shock.

What happens, or should happen, when life stops us in our tracks, or our own choices do? What if both secrets and secret needs, long guarded steadfastly, are finally revealed? What is the good life? Posed with astonishing understanding and compassion, these questions power a novel rich with characters and events, both comic and harrowing, revelatory about not only New York after the attacks but also the toll taken on those lucky enough tohave survived them. Wise, surprising, and, ultimately, heart.