New Slow City

November 1, 2014
In the City That Never Sleeps, in a place whose very definition of success is bigger, better, faster, Powers attempts to lead a more deliberate life, to paraphrase Thoreau. A self-admitted workaholic, he wants to ratchet it back a notch, to redefine urban existence in terms that can save his sanity and, quite possibly, the planet. He has had some experience at this, as recounted in Twelve by Twelve (2010), but will his time spent off the grid in rural North Carolina prepare him for downsizing to a 340-square-foot micro apartment in the heart of Manhattan? With his new bride? Who soon becomes pregnant? Analyzing what it means to want what we want, Powers turns his ecologically contemplative gaze both inward and outward, to matters both personal and global, to reconnect with those increasingly rare pockets of peace, tranquility, and mindfulness that will allow him to appreciate life at a slower pace and from a simpler vantage point. One need not live in a city to savor Powers' languid, albeit unconventional, advocacy for an unhurried pace.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)