In The Place To Be

In this collection of spirited essays, Trebay reports on the dramatic and subtle changes in his city during the 1980s and 1990s. Tuned in to the stray comment and the characteristic gesture, he charts the city's history eye-to-eye with the people who made it. "When I was a kid in New York, the subways were a place for perfect comportment: riders took their seats, made a vertical fold in the Times, crossed ankles (women), adjusted hats, smoothed the skirts of their Peck & Peck suits, and shut up...I couldn't tell you the moment when the subway became a nonstop subterranean exercise in group therapy with the spirit of Sylvia Frumkin calling the shots. But I'd guess it was in the 1970s. So much weirdness started then..." Driven by curiosity into obscure corners and marginal neighborhood of the city, a Trebay essay captures fragile moments in the life of a place or an individual. Accompanied perfectly by Sylvia Plachy's often mystical, odd-angled photographs, the essays create a kaleidoscope of people, places, and conversations in the city that is constantly reinventing itself. Trebay freeze-frames it all, even the seemingly permanent "air of self-importance, a conviction that when you're here, you're in the place to be." Author note: Guy Trebay, a columnist and senior editor at The Village Voice, writes frequently for The New Yorker, Vibe, Conde Nast Traveler, Grand Street, and many other national publications.