I read this book a few months ago — was not able to find an audio version at my library — and enjoyed it, though not as much as I’d hoped to. The story follows a group of friends living in Manhattan pre-9/11. The whole arc of the novel involved entitled, less than interesting characters building up their own illusions of self-importance until 9/11 forces a bit of reality on them. I say a bit because although the fearless energy of the majority of the novel is dampened by the terrorist attacks, there is still the sense of sameness in the character’s lives as they move, largely untouched, past what seems like merely a spot of bad luck. The one character for whom 9/11 has a real impact was drifting before the attacks — in a way, for him, 9/11 saves him.
Ultimately I found the novel to be largely forgettable, trying too hard to be insightful about a group of characters I didn’t identify with or care about. Coming away from the book, and now, after several months, I think the value of the story is less literary and more historical, a fictionalized snapshot of Manhattan life before and after 9/11.
