| Soft City | |
| Isbn: | 0-525-20661-2 |
| Dewey: | 301.36 |
| Congress: | HT133 .R3 1974a |
| Oclc: | 1055380 |
| Publisher: | Hamish Hamilton (UK) E.P. Dutton (US) |
Soft City is the first book written by Jonathan Raban, and published by Hamish Hamilton (UK) and E. P. Dutton & Company (US) in 1974.
Soft City records one man's attempt to plot a course through the urban labyrinth. Holding up a revealing mirror to the modern city, it is used as the locale for a demanding and expressive personal drama.
Jonathan Raban’s soft city is the malleable material from which identity is formed. “Itinvites you to remake it, to consolidate it into an shape you can live in . . . Decide whoyou are, and the city will again assume a fixed form around you.” This soft city is themythic city, where illusion, dream, aspiration, and nightmare are all fixed into place; itcomes into focus as it is passed through and acted upon by an individual or a collective.[1]