What happens when a person whose spent their entire adult life in New York City gets tapped to write a tourist guide to New York City? If you’re Helene Hanff you enlist one of your friends and take in all the sights that familiar to school children everywhere for the very first time. It might seem shocking that Helene’s never been to the Statute of Liberty but don’t judge too harshly. For example, when Blacklight and I lived in Expensive Acres I drove by certain museums every day on my way to work and it never occurred to me to visit them. Cut Helene some slack okay? It’s not like she had children and got dragged along on their school trips.

So over a span of a few months Helene and her trusty side-kick/friend Patsy explore almost all New York has to offer the tourist and native alike. Well except for the Metropolitan Museum proper, Helene still hasn’t forgiven them for grabbing part of Central Park during their 1970s expansion. It might inspire the reader to hit some of the sights on their next trip to the Big Apple. But Apple of My Eye is also a love letter and time capsule to a lost New York. All those Chock Full o’ Nuts have been replaced by Starbucks. And good luck finding a place to smoke.