I just finished reading The City We Became by NK Jamison. And it’s, among many things, a celebration of the diversity of New York and the importance of the variety of New York and its boroughs.

The metaphor of the city giving birth to a living, breathing entity that destroys other universes as it gets created is a metaphor for how to be a New Yorker is to be something new, where your old identity gets erased, and a new composite one gets created.

That the power of that identity is more significant than any particular identity you used to have.

Having listened to the book as an audiobook and heard from others that the written text is not that compelling, my thoughts are the following. What makes the book clear is its integration into New York. And when you hear Ayslen talk like someone from Staten Island, a very particular kind of person, or Branca like the Bronx, it changes how the book sounds and feels. If you can hear those voices when you read, then read; if you can’t – I strongly recommend the audiobook narration by Robin Miles.

My favorite throwaway scene is her depiction of Starbucks as a parasite whose purpose is to destroy cities by destroying their diversity. I cracked up laughing hard when I read that.