These Days Are Ours
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4.5 • 6 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Commencement meets Less Than Zero in this novel about a young woman who, still jobless after college and living in her family's 5th Avenue penthouse, tries to make sense of her wide-open future in post-9/11 Manhattan.
Six months after September 11th, New Yorkers are instructed to get on with their lives despite the terror advisories, streets filled with 9/11 merchandise, and mail that may contain Anthrax.
But for Hailey, still jobless after college and living in her family's Fifth Avenue penthouse, getting on with life means getting closer to Michael Brenner, the Princeton graduate and future human rights lawyer who seems to have it all. The city feels as if it's on the brink of apocalypse, and seeking out any sort of future seems pointless. So Hailey and her friends - Katie, already working at Morgan Stanley; Randy, a trust-fund kid who wears sweaters with holes in them; and Jess, confident of her future success regardless of her present inertia - stay out all night, dream up get rich quick schemes and aspire to greatness while questioning how much that greatness really matters.
< But when Hailey meets Adrian, a transplanted Pennsylvanian and recent Brown graduate who doesn't belong to Hailey's privileged mileu, she begins to realize that her view of the world might not be the only one there is, and soon she is questioning everything she thought she knew.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Haimoff's engrossing debut, which unfolds in Manhattan soon after 9/11, chronicles rich kid Hailey's attempts to make a life and come to an understanding with her parents. What differentiates the book from similar fables with young protagonists able to afford endless rounds of drinks in hipster bars is Hailey's sense of self and her thoughtful inner life; the shopping and club crawls of her privileged life are just a backdrop, not the story. As the daughter of publishing heavyweights, Hailey knows she'll never trump their accomplishments. Though she's highly connected, she's determined to find a job on her own and land golden boy Michael Brenner, whose close family and cozy apartment fill a void. Hailey tries to stay on Michael's radar despite his propensity for bed hopping. Unlike Michael, the Pennsylvania-born Adrian, an interloper in Hailey's social circle, works for his rent, and Hailey isn't sure how she feels about him, even though they share a similar thoughtfulness and sense of humor. Haimoff's writing resonates with an authenticity and gravitas that books about girls trying to find themselves in the big city often lack. Her details about elite schools and childhood haunts in Manhattan pepper Hailey's memories in often touching ways. A thoughtful novel for our time.
Customer Reviews
Finished in a Day
As a recent college graduate, the main character was able to perfectly sum up my feelings for a stable future, insecurities, and general feelings about life after school in the years deemed the best of our lives.