McInerney discovers 2nd act in new book

It's tempting to compare Jay McInerney to F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose playboy life fascinated his readers as much as his novels.

Fitzgerald became famous overnight after his novel "This Side of Paradise" was published in 1920 to an adoring audience. An inveterate drinker, he died of a heart attack at the age of 44.

McInerney, now 51, has already outlived his model and reformed his own life of drugs, alcohol, womanizing and frequenting the party scene in New York.

His rough equivalent of Fitzgerald's first novel, "Bright Lights, Big City," written when McInerney was in his 20s, is still his most popular book. But he hopes his new one, "The Good Life," will hit his 21st century public like Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" did an earlier generation.

During a telephone interview from his New York apartment, the flamboyant McInerney was busy multi-tasking, banging things around in the background while trying to keep his focus on the questions. Although noticeably distracted, he conceded that he had writer's block followed by serious depression while in his 40s. "I went though a lot of therapy and also took some antidepressants, but my writing continued even when I was not inspired.

"I tried to write a certain number of pages every day. It was important to sit at the desk and force myself to go forward. It was fun to have my first book come out in my 20s and be celebrated for that, but there was a lot I didn't know, pitfalls I didn't avoid — and I like where I am now.

"I really struggled to find my second act and finally succeeded. I'm proud of this new book."

McInerney said he used to identify with Fitzgerald, "but he died young. So after I went beyond his age, he ceased to be a role model. He was dead before middle age. I thought it was time to move on, although I often wish I could see what Fitzgerald would have written in mid-life."

Today McInerney has a taste for many other writers. He said he is reading Zadie Smith's "On Beauty," which he said is "pretty good," and he just re-read Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." He also likes Balzac and appreciates some of the new young writers, "who have a certain freshness, a take on the world that is unique when you're in your 20s. Like I'm reading Ben Kunkel's 'Indecision' now."

Married three times, McInerney has cut down on the nightclubbing and is now in a serious relationship with the attractive socialite Anne Hearst. Concerned about his legacy, he is devoting more of his concentration on his writing than ever before — which means his next novel is well along, and he feels good about it.