Beg, Borrow, Steal
by Michael Greenberg
Bloomsbury, HK$117

He has worked as an interpreter for Spanish-speaking defendants, waited at restaurants, sold fake cosmetics and driven cabs, among other jobs. But he is a writer by vocation. Which is why the format of this memoir, essays no longer than 1,200 words, work well for Michael Greenberg, who wrote the pieces for the Times Literary Supplement and whose only instructions were to give each a sense of personal necessity and urgency. Essay 35 of 44 is about a 'polyamory group' that embraces menage a trois arrangements. His protagonist, a 'lovestyles specialist', encourages her fans to unburden themselves. Surprisingly, no one talks about monetary support, surely a primary motivation for 'satellites' to remain in their lover's orbit. Greenberg, a New Yorker, also writes about family, beginning with his father, a scrap-metal dealer who couldn't bear that any of his children might surpass him. And there's much about his son Aaron, whose job prospects with NGOs were limited because of his US passport and Jewish surname (making him a kidnap target). New York plays a central role, through descriptions of its denizens. In many ways, the book is also an homage to the city.