Wednesday, July 7, 1993 - The MichganDay Summer Weekly -11 Bi K Brightness Falls Jay McInerney Vintage Press Russell and Corrine Calloway lookedjustSTUNNEDafter theyheard the crash of the stock market -and of their lives. Sigh. In his latest novel, "Brightness Falls,"JayMcInemey("BrightLights, Big City") treats the late '80s as a dramawithepic proportions.Yeah, the market crashed - but it was no '29. Enter our hero, Russell Calloway. Midwest born. East Coast educated. Up-and-coming publisher who feeds on the '80s take-over frenzy and at- tempts to buy out his employer so he will be able to publish novels and po- etry laden with social consciousness. ButRussellcompletelymissestheirony of his sell-out of idealism to capital- ism. Enter his wife, Corrine Calloway. Rich girl. Met Russell at college. Fell in love with his best friend. (Pay atten- tion to this plot line. It has the most potentialof being rewarding.)Decided togetout of the apartment and getajob as astockbroker. Has ornamental func- tions (Doesn't Corrine look lovely in that Calvin Klein dress?). S McInerney's pair adds up to be a stereotypicalpower-grabbingrmaleand his over-sensitive wife. Puhleeze, give the woman some credit for being the brains and emotion ofthecouple.Theirhigh-society(now- trite)New York lifestyle is juxtaposed with slivers of the lives of a homeless man,veryrichfriends,aDonaldTrump- esque financialmanipulator anda gos- sip columnist. Well, every book needs a writer and McInemey makes sure our pub- lishing hero gets his. Enter the afore- mentioned best friend and drugged doppleganger, Jeff, who haunts our beautiful couple. Jeff's character embodies the ro- manticidealizationofwritersaspeople who must destroy themselves to cre- ate. His presence serves tocritique the free-wheeling attitude of investment bankers and businesspeople (and yes, idealistic English majors, publishers are businesspeople). Russell knows he's not living up to his dreams of poetic existence.Corrine knows being astockbroker is a cop-out or a sell-out. And they bothknow(almost)thatJeff's self-destructive lifestyle isn't the ideal either. The predictable maturity comes with the predictable end. Russell and Corrinesurvive theirperiodofestrange- ment from each other and tentatively reach for each other once again. Jeff's irresponsible and self-destructive lifestyle leads him to an end that holds no poetic justice. In "Brightness Falls" McInerney grasps for the spirit that was the junk- bond spree of the '80s and he almost reaches it. Unfortunately, his charac- ters, who long to break into three di- mensions, remain flat. But the gossipy tone and moralistic banter make for good summer reading - if it's bor- rowed from a friend. -Hope Calati Above the Clouds: A Reunion of Father and Son Jonathan Bach William Morrow and Company JonathanBach -the name sounds familiar, doesn't it? Reminds you of that book by Richard Bach about a seagull named Jonathan, right? But Richard never had any children - or did he? Meet Jonathan Bach, the 25-year- old namesake of the acrobatic, inde- pendent seagull created by Richard Bach("Jonathan Livingston Seagull"); whose uplifting novels, such as "Illu- sions," conjure up images of a deeply sensitive and caring man. According to a journal entry cited in his son's first work, "Above the Clouds: A Reunion of Father and Son," however, Richard isn't"the guruof souimates that people say he is." He's the father who aban- doned his six children when Jonathan was two; the famous writer "who re- fused to talk about the family on radio talk shows"; a man who, for nearly 20 years, seemed as distant and frigid as the Arctic Circle. "Like a cat coughing up a fur ball," JOnathan Bach felt compelled to write a novel that would sear the film of mysticism from the eyes of Richard Bach readers with its glaring reality, revealing that the preacher of love, choices and soulmates was a deserter, a coward and a hypocrite. Jonathan's anger and confusion certainly boil in "Above the Clouds." Anyone who has not experienced the pain of a divorce will at last empathize withsomeonewhohas,whileRichard's fans will find themselves as suspicious of thefather as young Jonathan is.Like a hot scalpel, Bach's matter-of-fact tone cauterizes ostensibly innocuous descriptions toexpose the raw emotion swelling beneath: "Crying nurses. ' TORE jS I had a feeling they weren't crying about my broken wrist. 'Jon, your sister ... ' one of them tried to say. Another nurse broke out into soft sobs. Both of them tried to mask their tears with smiles as they prepared things from cupboards. That explains the sedative." Journal entries and letters inter- spersed throughout the work express Jonathan's resentment of his stepfather's strict rules, his numbing griefathissister'ssudden death and his fear of betraying his mother by accept- ing his father. They reveal, too, the gradual reconciliation between father and son, for "Above the Clouds" con- veys as much hope as it does hurt. Longing to feel good about being Richard'sson,Jonathan wrote thenovel to rise above the clouds, sohe wouldn't "have to be a slave to them on the ground." The pain behind the tell-allmemoir stillremainsin the mindof the Jonathan who chose to stay hurt rather than to establish arelationship withhis father. Yes, there is more than one Jonathan, just as in "One," there are multiple Richards and Leslies.In fact, Jonathan agrees with much of his father's phi- losophy -for example, that we create our own illusions and that we are not the products of circumstances, such as divorce, but the products of our re- sponses to these circumstances. AlthoughJonathaneventually takes pride in knowing how much his father has influenced him, he assures readers thathe ishisown person and thathehas his own voice. While Richard'smysti- cal philosophy induced a calming eu- phoria in readers recovering from the turbulent '60s, Jonathan's down-to- earth outlook satisfies the more skepti- cal reader of the1990s. Unfortunately, after278pages that detail his own personal growth, the epilogue tells too little, merely whet- ting our appetites for more of Jonathan See ClOUDs, PAGE 12 Air, SUN A:J = Tlz l:t. 665-3336 665-3878 MacetrFESTIVALS! 4288307 439-3300 I 7-day packages fr. $549!!! Call for details!I The premier articulator of '80s yuppie angst, Jay McInerney.