Leaving New York
Subtitle: writers look back
By: edited by Kathleen Norris.
Contributors: Norris, Kathleen, 1947-
Edition: 1st U.S. ed.
Publisher: Hungry Mind Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Saint Paul, MN
Language: eng
Number of pages: 313
Subjects: American literature -- 20th century.; New York (N.Y.) -- Literary collections.
Description: Can one be a "fully-realized human being" outside New York? Many people have intense, complex and ambivalent feelings about the city and the mindset that is New York. The essays and poems that make up Leaving New York look at writers' attitudes over the years toward the city's physical place and emotional and spiritual pull. Some leave, never to return, but carry New York in their hearts. Many talk of leaving but never make the move, while others come and go.

All have deep responses to the experience of the city. This is a rich and varied collection of reflections on the role of place in our lives. There are original essays by Leslie Brody, Frank Conroy, Bill McKibben, Kathleen Norris and Mona Simpson, with a separate introduction by Kathleen Norris. There are previously published pieces by twenty-seven authors from Henry James and F. Scott Fitzgerald to Joan Didion and Toni Morrison.
Table of contents: title: Excerpt from Jazz / Toni Morrison; title: Change / Frank Conroy; title: Leaving New York and Staying / Kathleen Norris; title: Jewish Geography / Leslie Brody; title: The things we do for love / Mona Simpson; title: Farewell / Willie Morris; title: A village life / Derek Walcott; title: 3 a.m. in New York / Jean Valentine; title: Heartbeat / Lucie Brock-Broido; title: Une Lettre a New York / Henri Cole; title: The city in which I love you / Li-Young Lee; title: A phonecall from Frank O'Hara / Anne Waldman; title: Sometimes you talk about Idaho / Pam Houston; title: A house on the heights / Truman Capote; title: Accumulation / John Updike; title: Putting myself together / Jamaica Kincaid; title: The American scene / Henry James; title: My lost city / F. Scott Fitzgerald; title: Apology for breathing / A.J. Liebling; title: Stalking the billion-footed beast / Tom Wolfe; title: The return of the native / Harold Brodkey; title: Canary / Rita Dove; title: Autumn in New York / Vernon Duke; title: Excerpt from The same river twice / Chris Offutt; title: Talking New York / Bob Dylan; title: Hard times in New York town / Bob Dylan; title: Goodbye to all that / Joan Didion; title: Do you miss New York / David Frishberg; title: Elsewhere in the empire / Bill McKibben; title: Courage of turtles / Edward Hoagland; title: Water songs / Terry Tempest Williams; title: Times square water music / Amy Clampitt; title: Greetings in New York City / James Wright.