After reading Apology For Breathing, I  found that Liebling’s observations of life in New York City were humorous and pretty accurate! I really enjoyed the passage about how Liebling likes to “think of all the city microcosms so nicely synchronized though unaware of one another.” I’ve found that to be very true for most parts of New York (or at least, Manhattan). I often nanny in three downtown neighborhoods- Battery Park City, FiDi, and TriBeCa, and I am amazed at how people in each neighborhood live such different lives!
I’m always impressed when authors master the ability to make up words and have them work in their writing. As is such for this piece, and I commend Liebling’s conjuration of “New Yorksese”. It’s also really great that (he?she?), compares it to the dialect of Cork, Ireland. I’ve been all over Ireland, including Cork, and I can tell you from experience that although the people of Cork speak english, they might as well speak chinese because the dialect in use there is impossible to understand! I’ve known native Irishmen who find it difficult to communicate with their countrymen down in County Cork. And although the comparison never occurred to me before, I see now that people from out of town often find it difficult to understand a native New Yorker speaking swift New Yorkese.