The book "Manhattan Transfer" is a story (rather, a collection of stories that interlink with each other) of a developing life in inner New York City. It is called "Manhattan Transfer" as it is referring to the transfer of lifestyles in the culture of NYC, from the "gilded age," where culture was all about rising technology, class, and economy, to the more artistic era of Jazz, Harlem Renaissance, and a social revolution.
The book ties together half a dozen characters from different backgrounds, including a drunkard, an accountant and his wife, a young orphan with plans to become a journalist, a young lawyer, and a milkman who eventually becomes wealthy. Their stories interlink with each other throughout the timeline (for example: The milkman, who has been hit by train, is married to a woman who falls for the lawyer that was working on the milkman's case)
The concepts of suicide, heartbreak, and death are common throughout the book. The characters, expecting to start a new life in the new world of New York City, but instead are in for a shock. Once-wealthy men become drunkards, foreigners jump off bridges, and people fall in love with those they shouldn't. The book is the harsh truth: while NYC circa 1920s was an era of art and social revolution, heartbreaking reality still took a toll on Americans striving to succeed.
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