October 17, 2006

City Slicker

“Through the Children’s Gate,” by Adam Gopnik

Who says you can’t go home again? Not Adam Gopnik, that’s for sure.

After a five-year sojourn in France, the award-winning New Yorker writer returned to Manhattan with his 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter in tow — and rediscovered New York with the unique perspective that only the company of children can provide.

Gopnik chronicles the five years that followed in his new collection of essays, Through the Children’s Gate, a dazzling, erudite exploration of life in the city — and the life of the city — named after one of Central Park’s lesser-known entrances.

From the ritual of apartment hunting to a requisite stint in psychoanalysis, from the Fourteenth Street farmers’ market to the feral parakeets of Flatbush, from the Hitchcockian death of the family goldfish to the adventures of Gopnik’s daughter’s imaginary friend (who, being a true urbanite, is usually too busy to play), it’s a tale filled with poetry, calamity, and absurdity.

Before you’re halfway through, you’ll find yourself checking airfares to JFK. (What’s better than autumn in New York?)

Though, if your life’s anything like Gopnik’s, it’ll be the homecoming that’s most interesting.

Available online at amazon.com.