Back Where I Came From has been called a “love letter to the City of New York” as the author, A.J. Liebling, describes the city’s greatness and its diverse faces and voices. I believe it’s a tribute to the city but more importantly to the people who inhabit it. As a regional book, it is written in local language and slang to describe the people Liebling came across. Liebling was born and raised in New York City, being exposed to all it has to offer whether good or bad. He explains New York as “one of the oldest places in the United States, but doesn’t live in retrospect like the professionally picturesque provinces. Any city may have one period of magnificence, like Boston or New Orleans or San Francisco, but it takes a real one to keep renewing itself until the past is perennially forgotten.” New York is a city that has remained elegant and enticing despite its past. People are able to adapt to the changes the city faced over the years and contribute to its history. He says native New Yorkers are the best mannered, the women are the most beautiful with straight teeth, the climate is healthy, and the death rate is lower than in any other city. He describes people who are superstitious and only go into bodies of water an odd amount of times, people who are professional eaters and fasters, and a tummler who runs a nightclub business just to make a dollar. These are people that one might look past and ignore but are fascinating. Liebling specifically chooses them to shed light on the uniqueness found in New York City.