Brightness Falls

First edition (publ. Knopf)

Brightness Falls is a 1992 novel written by Jay McInerney. His fourth novel, it tells of a couple named Russell and Corrine Calloway who meet in college. Their story continues in McInerney's 2006 novel The Good Life, which follows them into middle age.

The title is an allusion to the James Tiptree, Jr., novel, Brightness Falls from the Sky, in which "brightness" is a euphemism for destruction. Ironically, this novel was written before the events of September 11, 2001, while its sequel The Good Life is about those events.