Insomniac City
by Bill Hayes
Bloomsbury
Bill Hayes moved to New York from San Francisco in 2009. He took very little with him as he wanted to leave behind reminders of his previous life with his partner who had died from AIDS. At 48 years of age, he had no savings and all his belongings fitted into a few suitcases.
Throwing himself to the fates of the city which never sleeps, this memoir records the snippets of the humanity that surrounds him through journal entries and poems. Catching trains around the great metropolis, Hayes also includes photographs of people on the street who caught his eye.
“Every car on every train on every line holds a surprise, a random sampling of humanity brought together in a confined space for a minute or two – a living Rubik’s Cube.”
Unexpectedly, he fell in love again with neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks who was thirty years older and never been in a relationship. In many ways, this book is homage to both New York and the last years of Oliver’s life (Oliver died of cancer in 2015). It is a celebration of life, with the continuous pulse of the city matching Oliver’s exuberance for life.
Hayes also muses over how New York can break your heart with violence and hatred, and uses his journals to come to terms with the failing health of his partner and his grief at his death.
“One does not come to New York for beauty … that’s what Paris or Iceland is for … one comes to New York to live in New York, with all its noise and trash and rats in the subway and taxicabs stuck on cross-town traffic jams.”
If you’ve been to New York, these jottings will resonate with you and if you haven’t visited the city that never sleeps, Insomniac City gives you a sample of the delights you are missing out on.
Lezly Herbert
