Insomniac City

This book, by New York Times writer and photographer Bill Hayes, is a tenderly written memoir about the author’s loss of his long-term partner, Steve, and his subsequent move to New York, where he began a relationship with neurologist and author Oliver Sacks (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.) Alternating with Hayes’s thoughts on grief and love are recounts of his meetings with strangers, often met on his insomniac strolls through the city. While the writing succeeds in describing the author’s crushing grief over the loss of Steve and in creating a very tender portrait of Oliver, sentimentality prevails over authenticity elsewhere in the book: ‘If there could be a chip planted to track one’s vocabulary, as miles logged are counted with those fitness bands people go around wearing, I’m sure “beautiful” would be in my top ten most-used words,’ Hayes writes early in the book; this encapsulates much of the view of life presented in the memoir. An approach like this can be very moving and heartfelt, such as when he describes his relationship with Oliver, but unfortunately it comes across elsewhere as naive, such as in the author’s conversations with poorer citizens of New York. Hayes often uses sections from his journal to tell his story, which is peppered with mundane details that work effectively to create a tender portrait of the relationship. This moves into deeply emotional territory towards the end, when it becomes clear that Oliver has terminal cancer: ‘O is increasingly letting go, letting things fall away, the inessential: Just says after he was devouring gefilte fish with such relish and delight, now it is only the jelly he likes – “No more fish balls.”’ This ability to collect minute details and connect them to great personal significance, as exemplified here, is the book’s greatest strength, and it’s one of the factors that make Insomniac City a worthwhile read. Reviewed by Cameron Colwell