A few years ago, I was on a 1970s movie kick. One of the movies I watched was the burning skyscraper flick Towering Inferno. Among its plotlines was the story of the building’s PR director and his secretary, who were too caught up in their night of romance to realize the tower was in flames. I’m not sure whether author Eliza Kennedy was inspired by this movie when she wrote Lucky Night (she does reference it), but she has definitely made the scenario her own.
For six years, neighbors Nick Holloway and Jenny Parrish have been engaged in an extramarital affair, stealing hours here and there in hotels around and near Manhattan. But tonight is special: It’s the first time the two will spend the whole night together, and Nick has gone big, booking a suite on the 42nd floor of a new luxurious midtown hotel. But as Nick and Jenny love, banter, argue, and drink, a smoke alarm quietly beeps from many floors down. Although the front desk assures them nothing is wrong, the unit in their room starts to crackle with static. Jenny wants to leave. But Nick has been looking forward to this night for so long, he convinces Jenny to stay. It’s a decision that could come back to haunt them.
Lucky Night isn’t structured like Towering Inferno, but it’s just as compelling. The story takes place almost entirely in that hotel room and in Nick and Jenny’s heads. Kennedy moves seamlessly from Nick’s words to his thoughts to Jenny’s thoughts and her words. Their relationship is based on sex, and neither of them are willing to be completely vulnerable with each other. But as the stakes get higher, they’re forced to admit things they never thought they would. Kennedy’s writing style gives readers a deep dive into both characters, showing how and why they ended up in an affair. They’re both believable, likeable, unlikeable, funny, sad, guilty, loving, and very scared. (The only detail I found unbelievable was Jenny’s trajectory as a writer: She’s motivated by love for Nick to write a YA novel, then its sequel—both books become bestsellers and now a movie’s being made while the third is about to come out. All in five years, in a publishing industry where it can take a year for an editor to even read a manuscript…)
Even in the earlier chapters, the pacing is swift and the chapter breaks are well-timed. I read Lucky Night in a single day. And while I was completely caught up in Nick and Jenny’s relationship and their fate, I also saw the book as a metaphor for something bigger. When are the early warning signs an aberration, and when do they signal it’s time to evacuate? These are the questions Jewish people asked themselves in 1930s Germany, and they’re the questions that many Americans today are grappling with. In a way, we are all Nick and Jenny, listening to the weak sound of an alarm many floors below us while we’re caught up in our own emotional drama, and wondering if we should stay or go.
Thanks to Crown for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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