Manhattan, When I was Young Posted by raybarnhart1968 2 They say that anything is possible. An example of this is that one of Bravo’s Real Housewives led me to one of my favorite authors. In early 2012, when I read that someone named Carole Radziwill was going to be one of the new Real Housewives of New York, I picked up her book, What Remains, a New York Times bestseller about her husband and their friendship with his cousin, JFK Jr. and JFK Jr’s wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. I was moved by her well-written account of love and loss. She wrote in the book about another book Manhattan, When I was Young and how it was a comfort to her during a troubling time. Talking me into reading a book about New York City is about as difficult as talking me into eating chocolate cake for breakfast. So, I read it. The author, Mary Cantwell, broke the book into five different parts, the five different apartments she lived in when she first moved to Manhattan in the 1950’s, first as an unmarried college graduate with a new job into her first years of marriage and early motherhood in the 1960’s. The book is about her husband and children and jobs, but centrally it’s about a stranger coming to New York and finding their place. I loved it. And then I read her other books, American Girl: Scenes from a Small-Town Childhood and Speaking with Strangers: A Memoir. All three are currently available as a trilogy called Manhattan Memoir. I read all three in the span of a few days and they are wonderful. The first is about her childhood, the third is largely about her daughters and travels writing for Mademoiselle and Vogue. But her second is the one that touched me most. While I was reading it, I google earthed every address she talked about in the book. Of course, every building is still there. And it wasn’t hard to imagine a twenty-something moving to New York, a heart full of dreams, making their way with successes and failures in the big city. She reminded me of Peggy from Mad Men, but she also reminded me of someone else I know even better.
They say that anything is possible. An example of this is that one of Bravo’s Real Housewives led me to one of my favorite authors. In early 2012, when I read that someone named Carole Radziwill was going to be one of the new Real Housewives of New York, I picked up her book, What Remains, a New York Times bestseller about her husband and their friendship with his cousin, JFK Jr. and JFK Jr’s wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. I was moved by her well-written account of love and loss. She wrote in the book about another book Manhattan, When I was Young and how it was a comfort to her during a troubling time. Talking me into reading a book about New York City is about as difficult as talking me into eating chocolate cake for breakfast. So, I read it. The author, Mary Cantwell, broke the book into five different parts, the five different apartments she lived in when she first moved to Manhattan in the 1950’s, first as an unmarried college graduate with a new job into her first years of marriage and early motherhood in the 1960’s. The book is about her husband and children and jobs, but centrally it’s about a stranger coming to New York and finding their place. I loved it. And then I read her other books, American Girl: Scenes from a Small-Town Childhood and Speaking with Strangers: A Memoir. All three are currently available as a trilogy called Manhattan Memoir. I read all three in the span of a few days and they are wonderful. The first is about her childhood, the third is largely about her daughters and travels writing for Mademoiselle and Vogue. But her second is the one that touched me most. While I was reading it, I google earthed every address she talked about in the book. Of course, every building is still there. And it wasn’t hard to imagine a twenty-something moving to New York, a heart full of dreams, making their way with successes and failures in the big city. She reminded me of Peggy from Mad Men, but she also reminded me of someone else I know even better. 
easilycrestfallen 