skygiants

Fascinating. I have a good friend for whom this is their new favorite book, and I've promised to read it--and I will read it--but it's interesting to hear more about what I'm letting myself in for, because somehow I hadn't heard anything other than "a paean to New York," and as someone who's only visited New York a handful of times, that was like.... okay. Like I already know New York (City) loves New York (City) and think's it's the best thing since jam on toast.

--But the point you raise about the utter exceptionalism involved in having each of the boroughs instantiate (the boroughs but not the neighborhoods? And cities have characters, sure, but they do change over time, cf gentrification, so, when/how/what is the character? And where are boundaries? Tokyo's wards are pretty distinct--Shinjuku is sure different from, say Setagaya. UGH.

And yeah, things that are more than 50% metaphor are challenging. Still--it does sound very very interesting and engaging.