Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me by Bill Hayes

It requires a certain kind of unconditional love to love living here. But New York repays you in time in memorable encounters, at the very least. Just remember: ask first, don't grab, be fair, say please and thank you - even if you don't get something back right away. You will. - Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me

Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me is a series of vignettes about the author’s experience in New York - his encounters with strangers, his thoughts on the urban lifestyle, and his sporadic journal entries. The chapters of this book are relatively short, but they are incredibly insightful and thought-provoking. Thus, I would recommend allowing some time for reflection between chapters instead of gobbling them up in one sitting.

In short, this book is a celebration of love, loss, and life. Diving into the book, I cannot help but become enamoured with the author’s childlike innocence and fervent zeal for life. It’s so fascinating how he can see the wonders within the utter mundanity of daily life. From skateboard parks, dark alleys, to crowded subways, Bill Hayes has turned an urban jungle into a whimsical land wherein beauty and excitement await at every corner. Through his eyes, a spontaneous conversation with a cab driver becomes almost as interesting as an interview with a renowned author. Plus, the author’s ability to capture a fleeting moment and describe it with such clarity and precision is exceptional. It’s almost as if he could stop time and preserve that moment in all of its glory and entirety. Hayes’s expertise as a street photographer truly shines through his words, and I’ve always loved it when an author’s writing style reflects their professional background and personal interests.

As much as I enjoy the little vignettes about New York, my absolute favourite part of this book is the journal entries. From short conversations, to-do lists to daily occurrences, each entry is almost like a slice of the author’s life, raw and vulnerable. The majority of these anecdotes revolve around the author’s personal life with his romantic partner - Oliver Sacks. Although I have never read any books by Oliver Sacks, I was utterly charmed by his tenderness, enthusiasm and witty humour. It is wonderful how New York has led these two individuals to find each other. Maybe it’s true that the magic of a city does not lie within the city itself, but rather within the people (or person) within it.

“I just want to enjoy your nextness and nearness,” O says. He puts his ear to my chest and listens to my heart and counts the beats. “Sixty-two,” he says with a satisfied smile, and I can’t imagine anything more intimate. - Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me

O: “I don’t know if a passion for symmetry is an intolerance of asymmetry. Do you?” I: “I think one can be passionate about both. I think one can embody both. O: “Good. Very good.” - Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me

Although Insomniac City is a book about loss, each word seems to be brimming with lush exuberance. Maybe, after all, loss is about the value of life as much as it is about grief and pain. In the face of bereavement, it is, indeed, difficult to see through the dense fog of suffering, but I always believe that there will always be a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.

I can imagine why that meteor pulled away from its orbital belt and crashed to earth. The lights here are so inviting. - Bill Hayes, Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me