The notion of leaving New York might be met with disbelief, grief, and disgruntled groans from longtime New Yorkers -- let alone those waiting for the next excuse to move away. But no matter where you go, Sari Botton says, the city follows you. Last year, in the wake of her relocation upstate, Botton edited Goodbye To All That: On Loving And Leaving New York, an anthology in which more than 25 writers penned essays about their complicated feelings about the city and how they renounced their residency.
Now Botton is mayne eating her words with her latest collection, Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers And their Unshakeable Love For New York. This time, she's collected stories from another impressive array of New Yorkers -- Rosanne Cash, Susan Orlean, Whoopi Goldberg, Nick Flynn, and Jason Diamond, among others -- who illustrate their love-hate relationship with the city that never lets you go.
In a conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Botton reflects both collections and their opposite positions on New York, and getting inspired by Liza Minnelli's "City Lights."
You can catch a reading from Sari's book tomorrow, October 15, at 7:30 at Greenlight Bookstore. Featured contributors will include Alexander Chee, Stephen Elliott, Patricia Engel, Anna Holmes, and Adelle Waldman.
Interview Highlights
Sari Botton, on her position on New York after first book, Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving And Leaving New York:
I was very upset by some people who had this assumption that the first book was a collection of anti-New York screeds. And it was not, is not. It was a collection of love letters mostly. Also I was realizing that even if you left New York you still feel like a New Yorker if you've lived here long enough. I live in upstate now, but I still love New York. I keep a metro card, I have a token that I wear on a chain often. I still feel like a New Yorker very much.
I have a lot of conversations with people and it’s very rare for people to live in New York City their entire lives. Because of circumstances or just the need to get out often make people feel they need to leave. I think New York changes you irreversibly.
On getting inspired from Liza Minnelli “City Lights”:
I sang this song at Baby Grand, a karaoke bar on Lafayette Street the other night. It’s a song that I have been singing since the movie New York New York came out. It’s a story song about an old lady who lives in the country who misses New York City and it’s very corny and it has really funny stuff in it like, “Sties and stables sure are smelly, let me sniff some Kosher deli.” When I was 12, I didn’t realize it was corny. It’s really just about, there’s no place like New York.
On dedicating the book to Maggie Estep:
I’m getting a little choked up. Maggie Estep was someone that I idolized. I didn’t know her when I was living in the East Village. But I would see her around and I was also freelancing at MTV News. I was just very aware of who she was. She was this performance artist, slam poet, also musician and I had caught her at a jazz club called Diana’s. They had a Sunday poetry thing. I would see her there. She was so brave and she didn’t care what you thought about her. a few years ago I saw her in Kingston. I’m part of a non-profit called, the TMI project. We do Moth-style story slams. And on the sign up list it said, Maggie Estep. I was like, no way.
I invited her to contribute to Goodbye To All That when I had found out she had left New York also. And also that she had written seven novels, I knew none of this. And then I started to get to know her. She did a reading for the book on February 7 in Rhinebeck and then February 10 she dropped dead. She was 50, it was completely unexpected. I wasn’t a neophyte New Yorker, I grew up in Long Island and I was very insecure. A lot of people come to New York City to reinvent themselves, especially nerds. I was looking for a way to feel more secure and cool. and there was this person who was secure, cool and feminist. It wasn’t until I saw her video for “Hey Baby” in which she taunts a cat caller -- it had never occurred to me to feel nothing but flattered when faced with a cat caller. She was a person I wanted to be like.