{"id":170698,"date":"2025-05-02T10:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=170698"},"modified":"2025-05-06T10:12:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:12:50","slug":"keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_170699\" style=\"width: 1087px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-170699\" class=\"wp-image-170699\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1077\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png 638w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories-300x102.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-170699\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From <em>Reflected<\/em> by Vijay Balakrishnan, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/art-photography\/5855\/reflected-vijay-balakrishnan\">portfolio<\/a> in issue no. 185 of the <em>Review<\/em>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cRestaurants will break your heart\u201d is something that I often hear myself saying. It has become a mantra. When did I start saying it, I wonder. Maybe it was when I first discovered the criss-crossed lines of affection; falling in a crash-out kind of love with a fellow line cook because he helped me with my mise en place. Maybe it was when my sous-chef first called me mediocre; we all watched slices of chocolate cake I cut pile up in the garbage because of my disappointing quenelles. Maybe it was the first time that I had to fire a kitchen assistant over the phone, hearing him quietly murmur in response, \u201cOkay.\u201d Maybe (definitely) it was the time <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">got fired\u2014the bad news sandwiched between my manager saying I was \u201camazing\u201d and also \u201cso great.\u201d Maybe it was the first time I watched a plate of food I made go out and I understood, profoundly, that I would never know who might eat it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In his new memoir, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I Regret Almost Everything<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keith McNally\u2019s tells us that his heart has been broken many times over\u2014but it seems that restaurants are, in fact, what have saved him. As a diner, his restaurants have certainly given me much life force and heart-mend; they are perhaps the most accessibly glamorous in New York City, where I grew up. Over the course of his career, McNally, who is now seventy-three, has opened Augustine, Balthazar, Caf\u00e9 Luxembourg,\u00a0 Cherche Midi, Lucky Strike, Nell\u2019s, Minetta Tavern, Morandi, Pastis, Pravda, and Schiller\u2019s, as well as Balthazar in London and the new Minetta Tavern, in Washington, D.C.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This memoir spans the course of McNally\u2019s life. It loops and shifts between timelines, but in a way that is forgivable and even charming: it reads like McNally remembers as he writes and then\u2014urgently\u2014wants not to forget. A funny tension for someone who claims to regret almost everything. He weaves together memories from the working-class London of his childhood to his young man\u2019s adventures abroad and the sets (strip clubs and playhouses alike) where he realized that film and theater were what moved him most. But more often than not, we\u2019re in New York City in the eighties, witnessing, up close, the building of his empire, the explosions of his love affairs, and time\u2019s passage and pains to the present. McNally turns on the overheads: We get intimate, poignant, sometimes brutal moments from his marriages (two, both now finished) and earnest, messy fatherhood. Lights intensify on a stroke, a suicide attempt, a stint at McLean, and an arrival at new kind of life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much contemporary interest in restaurant culture gravitates toward narratives that are bustling, kinetic, chaotic. Think <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bear<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or the work of Anthony Bourdain\u2014cigarettes and tattoos and arm burns; a masculine speed machine to which my psychoanalyst has implied I am quite possibly addicted. But in real life, there\u2019s more to it. Quiet pauses, the catching of breath, the exhale of the new morning: the beats when the wave of service has crashed. McNally feels this too: \u201cIn my fifty years working and owning restaurants, my happiest times were at the Odeon, sitting down with the waiters and waitresses at three in the morning, listening to them joke about the night as they smoked, drank beer and counted their tips. Nothing since has ever matched that feeling.\u201d Ideally <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">something <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">matches that feeling, but I know what he means.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By staging meals in the same spaces every day, we disorient time. In restaurants, especially those with liquor licenses, there\u2019s a sense in which, for the diner, it is always nighttime. A weird time glitch for service workers, too. \u201cI feel like I was just here,\u201d you often say to your coworker. But it has been hours, or days, or perhaps years. I used to run the kitchen at a bar. The kitchen was in the basement, but service happened upstairs. I would come in at 2 <small>P.M.<\/small>, with the front of house. Light poking through the blinds, which would be raised as night unfolded, we would say that the bar was a set and we were in a one-act play. Our lives played out around the horseshoe bar, the spotlight moving from one of us to the other.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s a comfort to this strange repetition, maybe even a power in its performance\u2014especially on nights when service can feel futile and meaningless. There\u2019s a soothing quality to the rhythm, until there\u2019s not. One day, someone doesn\u2019t show up for work. The play goes on, but the cast changes. We get older. Everyone moves on and out, to the next act; a sense of ending hovers. This is something McNally knows and emphasizes in the meandering memories of his life. As someone whose first real love was the theater, he is well aware of the timing and pacing of each era, the necessity of an act\u2019s end. \u201cI\u2019ve screwed up so many times that I am constantly starting over,\u201d he says, \u201cAnd always for the last time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A search for authenticity seems to be McNally\u2019s most powerful motivator. In other words: \u201cIt\u2019s okay to not play the fucking game.&#8221; He locates it\u2014the real\u2014briefly, which is more than many can say. Real love; real, tangible success; and abundant beauty in the places where he lives. He also locates a realness\u2014or it locates him\u2014in the limitations of the body and the brain. A stroke in November 2016 left him half paralyzed and without the capacity for language he\u2019d formerly possessed. To McNally, in the mental hospital, a doctor quotes the psychologist William James, who emphasized that our bodies\u2019 limits activate powerful emotional consequences. The consequence for McNally is the one that shows up for all of us: we don\u2019t have that much time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">McNally is left with profound aphasia\u2014a beautiful word for a tremendous loss. Without his old capacity for language and movement, he meets an existential futility and depression that make some logical sense. The stroke robs him of much embodiment, seemingly leading him (through the darkest places) to rely on perception and memory, tuning into a new frequency to process his own life. This profound new limitation, I think, is what makes the writing feel so urgent. On rest at McLean, he is asked to write about opening a restaurant. Instead, he finds the story of his suicide attempt flooding the page. Abandoning the original piece, he embarks on the telling of his gristly reality. This new subject arrives feverishly, the original prompt rendered arbitrary. Ever recalcitrant (his eccentric Instagram, in many ways, is an homage to rebellion), he follows this new urge: each morning he rises and writes. \u201cI couldn\u2019t wait to start.\u201d he says. \u201cSuddenly, I had purpose.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This book has a real sense of mourning\u2014normal for a restaurant person, normal for anyone. Mourning for the errors, the things that could have been expressed, for the former body and brain, for youth, for botched films and unsuccessful plays. Seeming failures and shortcomings, all transmuted into what are called regrets, but regrets that seem quite crucial to a life. Much of the book describes McNally\u2019s arduous journey to reopen Pastis in 2019 while recovering from his debilitations of mind and body. He succeeds, and the restaurant gets two stars from <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Times<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. He has triumphed once again but maintains a refrain that defines the book: \u201cOnce I had achieved what I was after, I no longer desired it.\u201d Depressing? Sure. But there\u2019s a Zen-like quality to his honesty. Restaurants will break your heart. Or, perhaps more inevitably, restaurants or not, your heart will break.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I read the book quickly and was often moved. More than anything it all made me want to get a martini\u2014with McNally, or at least in the soft glow of one of his restaurants, where time passes, but the light stays the same.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Rosa Shipley is a cook and writer living in Brooklyn. She writes the Substack<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/palatecleanse.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/palatecleanse.substack.com\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1746216840605000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1gLvAf-aDUqmnXHV2yRkw4\">Palate Cleanse<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c \u2018Restaurants will break your heart\u2019 is something that I often hear myself saying.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68386],"tags":[67827],"class_list":["post-170698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-reviews-review","tag-featured"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror by Rosa Shipley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 2, 2025 \u2013 \u201c \u2018Restaurants will break your heart\u2019 is something that I often hear myself saying.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror by Rosa Shipley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 2, 2025 \u2013 \u201c \u2018Restaurants will break your heart\u2019 is something that I often hear myself saying.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-02T14:00:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-06T14:12:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"638\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"217\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rosa Shipley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rosa Shipley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rosa Shipley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/779a5d271ab30dbe6bd6454286a2f2f3\"},\"headline\":\"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-02T14:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-06T14:12:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/\"},\"wordCount\":1381,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"The Review\u2019s Review\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/\",\"name\":\"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror by Rosa Shipley\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-02T14:00:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-06T14:12:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"May 2, 2025 \u2013 \u201c \u2018Restaurants will break your heart\u2019 is something that I often hear myself saying.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png\",\"width\":638,\"height\":217},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/779a5d271ab30dbe6bd6454286a2f2f3\",\"name\":\"Rosa Shipley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b09971d1b0ed659ef46dc86e84de4b64c8a123589b7c7baf5725cdba35f7d2e1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b09971d1b0ed659ef46dc86e84de4b64c8a123589b7c7baf5725cdba35f7d2e1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rosa Shipley\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rshipley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror by Rosa Shipley","description":"May 2, 2025 \u2013 \u201c \u2018Restaurants will break your heart\u2019 is something that I often hear myself saying.\u201d","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror by Rosa Shipley","og_description":"May 2, 2025 \u2013 \u201c \u2018Restaurants will break your heart\u2019 is something that I often hear myself saying.\u201d","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2025-05-02T14:00:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-05-06T14:12:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":638,"height":217,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rosa Shipley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rosa Shipley","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/"},"author":{"name":"Rosa Shipley","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/779a5d271ab30dbe6bd6454286a2f2f3"},"headline":"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror","datePublished":"2025-05-02T14:00:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-06T14:12:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/"},"wordCount":1381,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png","keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["The Review\u2019s Review"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/","name":"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror by Rosa Shipley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png","datePublished":"2025-05-02T14:00:47+00:00","dateModified":"2025-05-06T14:12:50+00:00","description":"May 2, 2025 \u2013 \u201c \u2018Restaurants will break your heart\u2019 is something that I often hear myself saying.\u201d","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/new-york-memories.png","width":638,"height":217},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2025\/05\/02\/keith-mcnallys-rearview-mirror\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Keith McNally\u2019s Rearview Mirror"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/779a5d271ab30dbe6bd6454286a2f2f3","name":"Rosa Shipley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b09971d1b0ed659ef46dc86e84de4b64c8a123589b7c7baf5725cdba35f7d2e1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b09971d1b0ed659ef46dc86e84de4b64c8a123589b7c7baf5725cdba35f7d2e1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rosa Shipley"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rshipley\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170698"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170729,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170698\/revisions\/170729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}