July 4, 2011 Issue

There is in Raffi Khatchadourian”s glowing Talk piece “Project Neon,” in this week’s New Yorker, a pleasure taken in city-roaming that is akin to what we find in the writings of Joseph Mitchell and Ian Frazier. It’s about an architect named Kirsten Hively, who goes out at night photographing New York’s neon signs. Khatchadourian begins his piece with an inspired description of Hively noticing, while walking on First Avenue, a Cork & Bottle liquor store sign:

The letters were in pink neon – warm, humming, handmade – and they struck her as objects of neglected beauty.

I find that sentence irresistible. Here’s another one:

The bar’s signs flickered in parts, and many tubes were out, but “CAFE” was still visible, fitted to the rounded corner of the building.

The whole ravishing piece is like that. And newyorker.com provides an added source of pleasure – a slideshow of some of Hively’s photos. They’re terrific! But it’s Khatchadourian’s writing that I’m in awe of. His “Project Neon” is one of the best Talk stories of the year.