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 50 Iconic New York City novels - Hi-brow, low-brow, and in between - that illustrate the kaleidoscope of city life (followed by the one or two of the areas of town mentioned in the book)




LISTED BY YEAR OF PUBLICATION



Washington Square (1880)
Henry James
(In the book Dr. Sloper moves to Washington Square in 1835. James' grandmother grew up at #18 Washington Square North. James grew up on Washington Place east of the park; the building that replaced his house was the location of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire)
GREENWICH VILLAGE


Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893)
Stephen Crane
(The Bowery)
LOWER EAST SIDE


The House of Mirth (1905)
Edith Wharton
(Begins in 1870 at the Academy of Music - Bryant Park; Wharton lived on Park Avenue when she wrote it)
UPPER EAST


The Age of Innocence (1920)
Edith Wharton
(New York Opera House; Metropolitan Museum)
MIDTOWN


The Great Gatsby (1922)
F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Queensborough Bridge; Penn Station; Yale Club; Metropole Hotel on 43rd St.; The Plaza; Central Park)
MIDTOWN


Call it Sleep (1934)
Henry Roth
(9th Street and Avenue D)
EAST VILLAGE


The Thin Man (1934)
Dashiell Hammett
(midtown speakeasies; Saks; The Little Theater (240 W. 44th), Hotel Normandie (38th and Broadway; gone)
MIDTOWN

The League of Frightened Men (1935)
Rex Stout
(settings)
Detective Nero Wolfe's 3-floor brownstone is on the "south side of West 35th Street" which would put it between 5th Ave and the West Side Highway
CHELSEA

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943)
Betty Smith
(Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
BROOKLYN


The Fountainhead (1943)
Ayn Rand
(Ayn Rand lived at 139 East 35th at Lexington when she wrote the book between 1941 to 1942)
MURRAY HILL


I, the Jury (1947)
Micky Spillane
Mike Hammer's Hammer Investigative Agency was in "a two-room suite at the Hackard Building," room 808. Velda, his secretary and associate PI, worked in the other room.


Death of a Salesman (play)(1949)
Arthur Miller
(Brooklyn)
BROOKLYN


Here is New York (non-fiction) (1949)
E. B. White
(Turtle Bay Gardens)
MIDTOWN

The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
J.D. Salinger
(fictional Hotel Edmont; the Carousel in Central Park; Ernie's Jazz Club in the Village; Biltmore Hotel; "Radio City skating rink"; The Pond in Central Park; Grand Central; the clock at the Biltmore; McBurney School) )
MIDTOWN


On The Road (1951)
Jack Kerouac
(Kerouac wrote it at 450 West 20th St.; at the end of the novel Dean parts from Sal at 20th Street and 7th Ave to walk to Penn Station.)
CHELSEA

Howl (poem) (1956)
Allen Ginsberg
(Bowery, the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building)
EAST VILLAGE


Invisible Man (1952)
Ralph Ellison
(Harlem)
HARLEM


Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953)
James Baldwin
(Lemon Ave, Harlem, in the 1930's)
HARLEM


Go (1952)
John Clennon Holmes
(the first "beat" novel; Times Square dives)
TIMES SQUARE


Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958)
Truman Capote
(A "brownstone on the Upper East Side"; in the movie - 169 East 71st Street; Tiffany's)
UPPER EAST SIDE


Runyon on Broadway (collected short stories) (1950)
Damon Runyon
(Many of his stories start outside Mindy's (in real life: Lindy's) Restaurant at Broadway and West 51st St. just above Times Square. Guys and Dolls is based on his characters.
LOCATION


Franny and Zooey (1961)
J. D. Salinger
(east 70's)
UPPER EAST


The Group (1963)
Mary McCarthy
(follows the lives of nine 1933 Vasser classmates, most in New York; Vassar Club was at 138 East 48th; inspired Sex and the City
UPPER EAST


The Bell Jar (1963)
Sylvia Plath
(fictional Ladies Day magazine; fictional Amazon Hotel for women)
MIDTOWN


City of Night (1963)
John Rechy
(Times Square)
TIMES SQUARE


Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964)
Hubert Selby Jr.
(Sunset Park, Brooklyn)
BROOKLYN


From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967)
E.L. Konigsburg
(Metropolitan Museum of Art; Grand Central; NYPL; Donnell Library; Automat; Chock Full of Nuts)
UPPER EAST SIDE


The Chosen (1967)
Chiam Potok
(Williamsburg)
BROOKLYN


Down These Mean Streets (1967)
Piri Thomas
(El Barrio aka Spanish Harlem)
HARLEM


Rosemary's Baby (1967)
Ira Levin
The book is set in the Bramford on the upper east side near 6th Ave. and 55th St. The Dakota (Upper West Side) famously played the Bramford in the movie.)
UPPER EAST SIDE


The Godfather (1969)
Mario Puzo
(Don Corleone's mansion is in Long Beach, Long Island, next to Queens)
QUEENS


Time and Again (1970)
Jack Finny
(Dakota Hotel; 19 Gramercy Park; Madison Square Park)
UPPER WEST



Special Mention: A non-fiction work
on everyone's best list:

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (1974)
Robert Caro
(his later childhood at East 46th near Fifth Ave.))
CITY HALL



Ragtime (1975)
E. L. Doctorow
(New Rochelle; Lower East Side)
LOWER EAST SIDE


Winter's Tale (1983)
Mark Helprin
(Ellis Island; all over)
FINANCIAL


Bright Lights, Big City (1984)
Jay McInerney
(fictionalized "New Yorker" offices on 25 West 43rd St; Odeon Restaurant - 145 West Broadway (on cover))
MIDTOWN


The cover of Bright Lights, Big City by Jay MacInerney showed the exterior of the Odeon Restaurant at 145 West Broadway at Thomas Street, as well as the World Trade Center towers (book cover illustation by Mac Tauss).



The New York Trilogy (1985, 1986, 1986)
Paul Auster
(Orange Street, Brooklyn Heights
BROOKLYN


Slaves of New York (1986)
Tama Janowitz
(Downtown New York)
EAST VILLAGE


The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987)
Tom Wolfe
(The Bronx; Wall St.)
FINANCIAL DISTRICT


Billy Bathgate (1989)
E.L. Doctorow
(Bronx)
BRONX


American Psycho (1991)
Bret Easton Ellis
(Wall Street)
FINANCIAL DISTRICT


Jazz (1992)
Toni Morrison
(Harlem)
HARLEM


The Alienist (1994)
Caleb Carr
(Police Headquarters on Mulberry Street; Lower East Side)
LOWER EAST SIDE


Angela's Ashes (1996)
Frank McCourt
(Brooklyn)
BROOKLYN


Underworld (1997)
Don Delillo
(Polo Grounds, 1951; Arthur Avenue in the Bronx)
BRONX


Motherless Brooklyn
(1999)
Jonathan Lethem
(Brooklyn)
BROOKLYN


'Tis (1999)
Frank McCourt
(Biltmore Hotel; NYU; Staten Island; Stuyvesant High School at 345 East 15th Street)
GRAMERCY


The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000)
Michael Chabon
(Brooklyn; sleeps in Empire State Building)
BROOKLYN


The Nanny Diaries (#1) (2002)
Emma McLaughlin
(Park Avenue)
UPPER EAST


The Devil Wears Prada (2003)
Lauren Weisberger
(Runway" magazine)
MIDTOWN


The Fortress of Solitude (2003)
Jonathan Lethem
(Brooklyn)
BROOKLYN


Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)
Jonathan Safran Foer
(World Trade Center)
FINANCIAL DISTRICT


North River (2007)
Pete Hamill
(Winter Garden Theater; Lower West Side; Times Sq.; Washington Sq. Park)
MIDTOWN


Lush Life (2008)
Richard Price
(Lower East Side)
LOWER EAST SIDE


Let the Great World Spin (2009)
Column McCann
(100 Centre St. - The D.A's office; World Trade Center)
FINANCIAL


Girl in Translation (2010)
Jean Kwok
(lives in Brooklyn; works in Chinatown)
CHINATOWN


Open City (2012)
Teju Cole
(Ground Zero, Harlem, Columbia University; Carnegie Hall)
MIDTOWN


The Goldfinch (2013)
Donna Tartt
(Metropolitan Museum of Art; Park Avenue apt.)
UPPER EAST


Sources:
1) Goodrerads.com: Tales of New York City
2) Gothamist.com: The 16 Best NYC Novels by Rebecca Fishbein
3) The Ultimate Book of New York Lists. Bert Sugar with C. N. Richardson. 2009, New York: Skyhorse Publishing
4) 15 Essential Novels of New York City. Qwiklit.com
5) The 20 books that will make you fall in love with New York City all over again. Maddie Crum. The Huffington Post.
6) The 25 best New York City novels. Ross Scarano, Brenden Gallagher, and Greg Topscher. Complex.com.
7) The Best Books About New York City by Matthew Love (Time Out New York october 14, 2015
8) 10 of the best books set in New York. Travel, The Guardian, by Malcolm Burgess
9) The Best New York City Novels by Neighborhood. Nancy Aravecz, Mid-Manhattan Library.