Rules for Others to Live By: Comments and Self-Contradictions

Synopsis

David Sedaris Meets Garrison Keillor In This Hysterically Funny And Thoughtful Collection Of Original Essays By Tony Award-winning Playwright Richard Greenberg, Who Shares Anecdotes And Observations Gathered From A Lifetime Of Perfecting Rules For Others To Live By. Between Worrying About His Artist Friends And Reconciling His Complicated Feelings About New York City, Pulitzer Finalist Richard Greenberg Still Finds Time To Be Something Of A Hermit--and It Seems To Be Working Out For Him. As A Playwright, He Says, The Time Spent Alone Making Up Stories About Fictional Characters Has Sharpened His Sensitivity To Real Life And All Of The Bizarre, Unpredictable, And Even Unimaginable People Beyond One's Front Door. In Rules For Others To Live By, He Shares Stories From His Life, Observations From Two Decades Of Residence On A Three-block Stretch Of New York City, And Musings From His Brilliant, If Not A Little Unusual, Mind. Spanning A Range Of Topics From Friendship To Writing, Urban Life To Visiting Parents, Health Crises To Hypochondria And Other Paranoid Tendencies, Greenberg's Distinct And Hilarious Voice Articulates Our Own Mild Obsessions And The Idiosyncrasies We Can Only Hope Will Go Unnoticed In A Crowd-- Apology To Oprah -- Introduction -- Manifesto. Wisdom -- City. Selves ; Well, You've Just Been A Delight, Or New York City In The Eighties ; Mediocrity: An Appreciation ; I Completely Agree, But: Two Nostaldias ; Local Character ; Weatherless Chelsea ; As I Was Saying To Kitty Genovese ; Here, Too, Is New York ; Here's An Idea ; In The Moment ; My Racial Incident -- City Friends. Trapped ; My Friend, The Murderer Manqué ; Surprising Friend ; Socialism ; Worst-case Scenario ; Friendship ; Cute Idea -- Storytelling. My First-world Problem And Go Fuck Yourself ; Origin Myth ; Genre/role ; Rich Peaople ; Selling Out ; Triumph ; A Plea For Universal Misunderstanding ; Presence ; Anecdote -- Health, Education. Goodness ; Doctors/diagnosticians ; Sleep ; Oblivion ; Malpractice ; Age -- City Friends, New And Updated. Deferred ; On Liking Racist Things -- Obligatory. My Best Recipe -- Several Dead Women Of Whom I Was Fond. Maeve And Fredda ; In Order Of Disappearance -- Things Are Looking Up, Maybe; And Back. Opinions ; Nuptials ; Byrne The Witch: My Radical Youth ; On The Other Hand... ; A Paradox Explained ; Ignorance ; Meaning ; The Sump ; Trees ; Dinner ; Local Character, Part 2. Richard Greenberg.