I'm exactly the kind of person who would be drawn to Manchester, W. says. Who would make the Mancunion mistake. 

Oh, he can see why I romanticised Mancunion despair. But didn't I realise that such despair was only the desire to leave Manchester, the same city in which I had now marooned myself?

Of course, I was closer to the state of things in my Mancunion existence, W. says. I was closer to the truth of the world. I understood the honesty of the city, W. says. He admires that in me.