A wonderfully original tale of the disintegration and mutation of an apparently ordinary American family. -- Alison Lurie The reality of living in New York is hardly the lifestyle viewed on Friends or Sex in the City . Case in point is Gibson, who shares his version of New York life in a funny and moving memoir about his move to the Big Apple. Once there, he is the typical starving artist--eking out an impoverished existence, struggling through a variety of meaningless jobs while trying to make it as a writer. Through a series of hilarious anecdotes, we learn about what it's like to set up a life in a new city--the gay roommate service, the search for employment, and the constant rationalization that this move was the right thing to do. His new roommate, John, has an unacknowledged illness and a strange past. Gibson's best friend and sole consolation (besides alcohol and tobacco) lives 200 miles away, but her phone conversations and occasional visits make his life a little more bearable. Gibson's witty stories will ring true to anyone who has struggled to make it in any new place, large or small. Michael Spinella Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "One young man's hilarious, brutal, heartrending attempt to live the writer's life in New York City..." -- -Jill Ciment, author of Half a Life Wesley Gibson has taught writing at New York University, the University of Richmond, and Vassar College.