Review
"Charming . . . New York's pull is evident throughout."
—The New York Times
"The hip, witty, and sometimes heartbreaking essays in Goodbye to All That get to the bottom of most Big Apple miseries: big dreams cost big bucks to maintain. As many of these writers figured out, sometimes losing New York City is the only way to regain your credit rating, rent-stabilized living spaces, and sanity. From candid to kooky to classic, this collection sheds the love, light, and lyricism the gritty city deserves."
—Susan Shapiro, author of Speed Shrinking and Five Men Who Broke My Heart
"New York City is like a lover who left you for the slightly younger, prettier girl: you can smell him, taste him, yearn to have him back in your life. All the stories in this collection recall that lover and his many faults, and then make you forget them, all over again."
—Martha Frankel, author of Hats & Eyeglasses and executive director of the Woodstock Writers Festival
"Of course it would take more than one woman to capture the mythic, ever-shifting, exhilarating, and disappointing beast that is New York. The chorus of voices that is Goodbye to All That sings the city—both of the pavement and of the mind—to life, over and over."
—Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
“Twenty-eight of today’s most extraordinary, diverse, uniformly interesting women writers revisit the eternal story of devotion and departure . . . An exquisite read.”
—Maria Popova, founder of Brain Pickings
"The book's premise alone hooked most everyone I know who has even a passing fascination with living in the Big Apple—or fleeing it for other parts."
—DailyCandy
"[Gets] at the sense of hope (or ambition) with which New York seduces us, as well as how living in the city can turn, leaving us with wistfulness and regret."
—Los Angeles Times
"Seriously impressive."
—xoJane
"Speaks to every New Yorker, but more than that, it speaks to anyone who has loved and fallen out of love with a city."
—AOL Recommends
About the Author
Sari Botton is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in the "New York Times, New York Magazine, The Sun, The Village Voice, Harper's Bazaar, More, Marie Claire, WWD, W, The Rumpus, Memoirville, This Recording, " xoJane.com, assorted anthologies, and other publications. She studied English and journalism at SUNY Albany, where years later she was an adjunct professor of undergraduate journalism. She also taught first-person essay writing at SUNY Ulster. Sari is the editorial director of the TMI Project, a non-profit organization that holds true storytelling workshops in jails, shelters, veterans' hospitals, schools, and other places where people don't usually get to tell their stories or be heard.
