Soft City - Softcover

Raban, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860461077 ISBN 13: 9781860461071

Publisher: The Harvill Press, 1998

Synopsis

Documents the experience of carving one's own path through the tangle and sprawl of urban metropolitan life. This book recreates the city in its teeming, unknowable variety. Part fact, part fiction, it holds up a mirror to the modern city and finds there a stage for a unique personal drama.

About this title

Review

Jonathan Raban's 1997 novel Bad Land won both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN Award for Creative Non-fiction. Soft City, a work dating back to 1974, contains much of the same award-winning style of narrative, wit and compassion for the subject.

Meticulously researched, Soft City is an insider's guide to the stresses and strains of city life. Flicking between many cities, but primarily London and New York, the reader is shown the true horror and, to an extent, joy of life in a modern metropolis. The reasons why people flock to cities, why some stay and why some leave are some of the many topics covered. Raban's observations are all too real. His sharp, poignant wit gracefully lightens his factual presentation. Raban's dialogue is truly a joy to read. Overheard conversations in restaurants and muffled voices heard through unsubstantial walls are penned in a lively, if not voyeuristic, form. This is a surprising page-turner from beginning to end, and a real classic in the literature of the city. It may be advisable not to live in or visit a conurbation without a copy. --Jon Smith

Book Description

In the city we can live deliberately: inventing and renewing ourselves, carving out journeys, creating private spaces. But in the city we are also afraid of being alone, clinging to the structures of daily life to ward off the chaos around us. How is it that the noisy, jostling, overwhelming metropolis leaves us at once so energized and so fragile? In Soft City, one of our most acclaimed novelists and travel writers seeks to find out. First published in the 1970s, his account is a compelling exploration of urban life: a classic in the literature of the city, more relevant to today s overcrowded planet than ever. 'A psychological handbook for urban survival' Sunday Telegraph

Edition details

• Publisher: The Harvill Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1860461077
• ISBN 13: 9781860461071
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256