Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York edited by Sari Botton. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Inspired by the Joan Didion essay of the same name, Goodbye to All That is an anthology of essays about loving and leaving New York.
I spent 2020 rereading as much Joan Didion as I could get my hands on. Sari Botton, the former essays editor at Longform, has edited some of the best essays I've read in recent years. The combination of the two meant that picking up Goodbye to All That was an obvious choice.
First published in 2013, this revised edition includes seven new essays some of which are about the pandemic. As is expected with anthologies, there is a good mix of well known writers - including Roxane Gay, Leslie Jamison, Melissa Febos, and Cheryl Strayed - and new to me writers.
Coming away with an extended to-read list is one of my favourite things about anthologies!
Goodbye to All That shows us New York from varying perspectives. We hear from people who were born and raised in New York, people who moved across the country to spend time in NY, people who were priced out of the city, and people who left only to find their way back.
This is a well curated collection about adventure, following your dreams, searching for belonging, and what it means to 'feel at home' somewhere.
My favourite essays are The Assistant's Loft by Leslie Jamison, Home by Melissa Febos, Misfits Fit Here by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Losing New York by Lauren Elkin, and Shelter in Place by Emily Raboteau.
Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York edited by Sari Botton is published by Seal Press, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group, and is available in paperback and ebook format.