In defense of the miscellaneous essay collection -- The family romance. Tea at the Plaza ; The camera shop ; The Countess's tutor ; My brother the radio host ; Wife or sister? ; The limits of empathy ; The lake of suffering -- The consolations of daily life. Memoirs of a wishy-washy Left-liberal ; Why I remain a baseball fan ; Novels and films ; On changing one's mind about a movie ; Laws of attraction ; Duration, or, Going long ; Warren Sonbert -- City spaces. Brooklyn the unknowable ; Robert Moses rethought ; City Hall and its park ; Walking the high line ; Getting the South wrong -- Literary matters. "Howl" and me ; The poetry years ; The stubborn art of Charles Reznikoff ; the improbable moralist ; James Agee ; On not reading Thomas Bernhard ; Worldliness and regret -- The life of the mind.