Hello (And Goodbye) To All That: A Memoir of a Changing New York in the 21st Century

A moving father and son journey across time and place, and the surprising bonds that form between generations.

Growing up in suburban Chicago, Jonathan Liebson heard stories about the fabled New York City of his father’s childhood: from the World’s Fair to Mayor LaGuardia to the family-owned drugstore in Midtown. He eventually makes his own move to the Big Apple—not as a doctor, like his father, but as an aspiring writer and teacher. Soon, he forges his own indelible ties to the city and lives through important historical moments as profound as from his father’s time.

Home to some of the country’s worst tragedies and upheavals, New York has also been a place of national recovery and inspiration. From the days of Tower Records and The Village Voice through the era of cell phones and bike lanes, Hello (And Goodbye) To All That combines amusing narratives from everyday life in Greenwich Village and Brooklyn with an up-close and personal view of larger transformational events.

Follow the quirky routines of café-goers, surprising encounters with celebrities and writers, and the highs, lows, and dangers of being a New York cyclist. Liebson recounts his experiences witnessing 9/11 from his roof-deck and the city’s aftermath, living in a darkened swath of Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy, being one of twenty thousand people to see candidate Barack Obama in Washington Square Park, and teaching uprooted students from the epicenter of the pandemic. Populated with interesting characters, Liebson’s memoir presents ironic intersections between the past and present, moments of grace in unexpected places, and a touching intergenerational story of father and son, New York and America, and a common history they all share.