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fbroom's review
3.0
Totally hit or miss. Few essays were great and touching and some were obnoxious and stupid. I wish the collection was more diverse. It was lacking in that area.
List of Essays:
New York, in the Mirror - Rosanne Cash
Stay Hungry - Jason Diamond
New York and the Night - Patricia Engel
To Live and Die in New York - Phillip lopate
The Goodbye Girl - Anna Holmes
A Guy Named Wade - Jon-Jon Goulian
The City Hoarded - Colin Harrison
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in New York City - Whoopi Goldberg
New York Three Times - Alexander Chee
The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon - Elizabeth Gilbert
City of Tongues - Jenna Wortham
But Why Did You Move Here - Stephen Elliot
Manhattan - Julie Klam
Royalty - Susan Orlean
Me Love Brooklyn - Adam Sternbergh
New York Cool - Sari Botton
The Shivtz at the End of the World - Brian Macaluso
Quit Everything - Kathleen Hale
City of Mundane Fantasy - Elliot Kalan
SF > NYC Issac Fitzgerald
Publishing a like Story - Mary Kreizman
ESB - Rachel Syme
The Studied Knowledgeability of The Native New Yorker - Amy Sohn
Hot Time in the Old Town - Owen King
Conversions: Coming of Identity in Late Nineties New York - Porochista Khakpour
Brooklyn and Me - Adelle Waldman
The Replacements - Nick Flynn
List of Essays:
New York, in the Mirror - Rosanne Cash
Stay Hungry - Jason Diamond
New York and the Night - Patricia Engel
To Live and Die in New York - Phillip lopate
The Goodbye Girl - Anna Holmes
A Guy Named Wade - Jon-Jon Goulian
The City Hoarded - Colin Harrison
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in New York City - Whoopi Goldberg
New York Three Times - Alexander Chee
The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon - Elizabeth Gilbert
City of Tongues - Jenna Wortham
But Why Did You Move Here - Stephen Elliot
Manhattan - Julie Klam
Royalty - Susan Orlean
Me Love Brooklyn - Adam Sternbergh
New York Cool - Sari Botton
The Shivtz at the End of the World - Brian Macaluso
Quit Everything - Kathleen Hale
City of Mundane Fantasy - Elliot Kalan
SF > NYC Issac Fitzgerald
Publishing a like Story - Mary Kreizman
ESB - Rachel Syme
The Studied Knowledgeability of The Native New Yorker - Amy Sohn
Hot Time in the Old Town - Owen King
Conversions: Coming of Identity in Late Nineties New York - Porochista Khakpour
Brooklyn and Me - Adelle Waldman
The Replacements - Nick Flynn
laurynreads's review
4.0
My junior year of undergrad, the year that I started falling in love with New York and the time I spent living there, I read Botton's other anthology Goodbye to all That (purchased outside the Strand bc I saw Cheryl Strayed's name on the cover, it was about NYC, and it was a dollar). At the end of every essay I'd have to exhale and grin to myself--didn't these people know what they were missing out on? I, at the ripe age of 20, knew that NYC was the best place to be. Each essay was a bolster to my belief that I should never leave. Spoiler alert: much like everyone else, I did leave.
Which is why when I applied to Columbia and hoped that I'd get in, I promised myself that I'd buy this collection to celebrate the joy of returning to the city that I love. I did get in! I did move back! I started reading this collection on the bus ride from Boston to the city when we went to sign our lease. The opening essay is still my favorite, because it so perfectly captures everything I love about the city. I didn't love every essay (how can you, with so many personalities and styles jostling for attention?) but those that connected really connected. I'm positively glowing with love for the city and writerly community here and am so happy to round out my collection of New York books.
Which is why when I applied to Columbia and hoped that I'd get in, I promised myself that I'd buy this collection to celebrate the joy of returning to the city that I love. I did get in! I did move back! I started reading this collection on the bus ride from Boston to the city when we went to sign our lease. The opening essay is still my favorite, because it so perfectly captures everything I love about the city. I didn't love every essay (how can you, with so many personalities and styles jostling for attention?) but those that connected really connected. I'm positively glowing with love for the city and writerly community here and am so happy to round out my collection of New York books.
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