"Arbitrary Stupid Goal" by Tamara Shopsin (MCD/FSG)

ISBN: 978-0-374-10586-0

A hard book to put down.  Each page is a bite size narrative that is so well written and often profound, that you just want to take another page in, and then after that, another, and so forth.  Tamara Shopsin, besides being a wonderful prose artist, is also an illustrator and designer.   Some of the text is only a few paragraphs long on a page, to full page - but this is an epic history of her family, their friends, and the main star of the book, New York City, specifically Greenwich Village.   

Every page is a reflection of the classic New York landscape. One that I often imagined in fiction, films, and music.  Reading this memoir, I have The Lovin' Spoonful as a soundtrack in my brain.   No mention of the band within its pages, but that is what I bring to the text as a reader.  The Shopsin family are well-known in the Village and beyond, due that they had a food market, which turned into a legendary diner.  I've been there twice, and the food was incredible, but beyond that one goes there for the spectacle; the theater that comes with the restaurant.   I can't think of another diner that is so enjoyable, as well as entertaining.  The chances of being insulted by the owner (the author's father) are in the 70% bracket.  Of course, it's worth taking a chance, because it's an amazing show.   And again the food is great.

Tamara Shopsin's book captures the flavor of her family which in turn means classic New York City.   Every page has a wisdom or philosophy either made by Tamara, or by the mom Eve, or dad Kenny.   This is the book to have when one is feeling down or depressed.  The life that comes off these pages is rich, brilliant, and hysterical.  The sad thing is Manhattan has changed into a huge shopping mall mentality.  Shopsin captures the moments why one would want to visit NYC in the first place, as well as a focused snapshot of life being lived at its intense pleasure.  

"Mumbai New York Scranton" by Tamara Shopsin

A combination of travel journal and tales from the hospital bed, and it's superb.  It is not only the adventure, but the way Tamara Shopsin's tells the tale.  She writes with minimal sentences, but with maximum meaning.   Her travels through out India captures not only the country, but also her personality and how she perceives that experience in such an enlightened manner.  Tamara and her husband the noted (and fantastic) photographer Jason Fulford go to India with a pair of fresh eyes (her's) and a desire to return to an area or memory (his).  Fulford noticed the changes, and Shopsin sees India on a first time basis.  I really identify with this because I have taken friends to places that i greatly admired, but either the place has changed or I have changed, and I wasn't aware of it.

There is physical traveling and then there is mental travel, and both are conveyed quite well in this book.  Shopsin noticed that she was feeling ill in India but thought it was due to the traveling, but it was something serious.  But this is not a woe me story, but an adventure narrative of sorts, and I started reading it this morning and i couldn't put it down till I finished.  The book also has images by Fulford, which if you know his work, is quite mysterious as well as witty.  He is the perfect traveling companion and his documentation of the trip is wonderful.  But we also get Shopsin's illustration through out the book, and she is known for her drawings for publications such as the New York Times.  Her imagery is great as drawings, but also in words.  A great upbeat book.