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HELLO (AND GOODBYE) TO ALL THAT

Jonathan Liebson

A Memoir of a Changing New York in the 21st Century

A moving father and son journey across time and place, and the surprising bonds that form between generations.
Growing up in suburban Chicago, Jonathan Liebson heard stories about the fabled New York City of his father's childhood: from the World's Fair to Mayor LaGuardia to the family-owned drugstore in Midtown. He eventually makes his own move to the Big Applenot as a doctor, like his father, but as an aspiring writer and teacher. Soon, he forges his own indelible ties to the city and lives through important historical moments as profound as from his father's time.

Home to some of the country's worst tragedies and upheavals, New York has also been a place of national recovery and inspiration. From the days of Tower Records and The Village Voice through the era of cell phones and bike lanes, HELLO (AND GOODBYE) TO ALL THAT combines amusing narratives from everyday life in Greenwich Village and Brooklyn with an up-close and personal view of larger transformational events.

Follow the quirky routines of café-goers, surprising encounters with celebrities and writers, and the highs, lows, and dangers of being a New York cyclist. Liebson recounts his experiences witnessing 9/11 from his roof-deck and the city's aftermath, living in a darkened swath of Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy, being one of twenty thousand people to see candidate Barack Obama in Washington Square Park, and teaching uprooted students from the epicenter of the pandemic. Populated with interesting characters, Liebson's memoir presents ironic intersections between the past and present, moments of grace in unexpected places, and a touching intergenerational story of father and son, New York and America, and a common history they all share.

Jonathan Liebson was raised in suburban Chicago and studied at Wesleyan University, the University of Kent (UK), and NYU's graduate creative writing program. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The American Scholar, Tablet Magazine, Time Out NY, and Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer (Random House). He teaches courses on writing and literature at The New School.
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Published 2025-05-01 by Post Hill Press

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A unique, funny, and brutally honest perspective on living in New York City.

Jonathan Liebson's book celebrates NYC in sentences built as beautifully as the city itself. Searching for the New York of his father's youth, Liebson finds instead a home of his own. His joy in living therethrough all the chaos, street hassles, surprise tenderness, and cataclysmswill be his readers' joy too.

The linked stories in Jonathan Liebson's Hello (And Goodbye) To All That are a poem of American life in the late 20th and early 21st century. Tender, beautiful, funny and wise.

In these humane, companionable stories, the trustworthy voice of Jonathan Liebson captures the dilemma of a son trying to honor the heritage of his father, and a mensch trying to enact decency without resorting to self-righteousness.

One of the great New York memoirs, updated for our day. A treasure to be read and re-read.

Liebson's book reflects a profound wisdom about people, contemporary culture, and the cities and world we live in.