In “Here is New York,” EB White memorably advises that a person shouldn’t move to New York “unless he is willing to be lucky.” Growing up in Long Island, Mickey Rapkin—author of Pitch Perfect, which inspired the blockbuster film starring Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson—always felt susceptible to Manhattan’s gravitational pull. And when he arrived in the big city it exceeded his expectations, taking him to heights and knocking him for loops he could never have anticipated. And that’s just what his essays about the experience do, too. In “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” (which takes its name from an LCD Soundsystem song) Rapkin recounts a universal story of falling in love with New York, and the special ways the city—and the people you meet here—can break your heart, then bring you back to life. In the humorous but visceral “How Not To Tell Your Girlfriend You’re Gay” he explores the unexpected emotions of attending the wedding of his last girlfriend. These essays are a ride through love, loss, self-doubt and self-discovery.
WILLING TO BE LUCKY taps into the expectations we have of our adult lives before we get there, to the singular events that define our transition from youth to adulthood, and—finally—the experience of reconciling where we’ve arrived with the place we’d originally set out for. It will resonate with audiences flocking to HBO’s GIRLS as well as readers of books by Mike Birbiglia, Elif Batuman, John D'Agata, Touré, Sloane Crosley, and Jonathan Ames.
