How to Leave: Quitting the City and Coping with a New Reality

Comedic writer Clune shares her experience of moving from Manhattan back to her hometown of Madison, Wis., in this clever and amusing memoir–cum–“practical coping guide.” Clune divides the book into four parts: “Deciding to Go,” “Settling In,” “Learning to Adapt,” and “Mastery,” with chapters describing her transition from New Yorker to Midwesterner. For her, the “tipping factor” in deciding to move after 20 years of living in the city was when her first child entered kindergarten, and she and her lawyer husband decided it would be easier to relocate to a more family-friendly environment and enroll the kids in public school. Clune soon misses fresh shellfish, chance encounters with celebrities, and other Manhattan perks, and finds that her irreverent, sarcastic communication mode doesn’t work so well in the Midwest, where one should not indiscriminately “drop the f-bomb.” She advises her readers to resist the urge to be “judgy,” to curse, or to complain after a move, for there is “no perfect place.” Clune’s helpful narrative is peppered with entertaining anecdotes and humorous asides (“It also became apparent during that first year that my friends from New York were never going to visit”) along with such sagacious observations as “moving is a process, not an event.” This is a hilarious and comforting book for the recently relocated. (Oct.)