by Will Leitch
First published 2005
Will Leitch sits in his empty apartment, eviction notice in hand, counting subway fare in loose change. Another employer has folded. His parents have written him off as hopeless. The humiliation of his televised breakup still burns. This is rock bottom in Manhattan, where dreams go to die expensive deaths. Leitch chronicles his disasters through a series of brutally honest columns that map his journey from small Illinois towns to New York City's unforgiving streets. Each workplace closure brings fresh shame. Each family phone call delivers new disappointment. The city that promised everything has stripped him bare. But somewhere between the financial ruin and personal wreckage, Leitch finds dark humor in his spectacular failures. His columns become lifelines, transforming private embarrassments into shared truths. The same disasters that destroy his bank account fuel his writing. What emerges is a portrait of a man learning that sometimes you have to lose everything to discover what actually matters.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, personal-growth, rags-to-riches
Setting: Illinois, Manhattan, New York City
Period: 21st Century
208 pages · Paperback · Arriviste Pr Inc
Content warnings: depression