Who is The Author (Alfred Kazin) from A Walker in the City and what is their importance?

The Author (Alfred Kazin) never describes either his present day self, or how he actually left the community where he grew up (Brownsville - see "Objects / Places"), a place that, as he himself suggests, everyone who lived there wanted to leave. Instead, he concentrates his attention on his reactions and experiences upon going back (something he apparently does repeatedly), experiences which, perhaps strangely, seem anchored in a certain sense of loss and longing, of nostalgia and of sadness.