Constance Rosenblum (ed.) 2005 New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times

摘要

In this collection of short articles, writers distil their impressions of New York City in a kaleidoscope of places, feelings, people and legends written between 2000 and 2004. Several stories are directly connected to the events of September 11, 2001, but whether they were written before or after the collapse of the World Trade Center, the New York they portray is a relentless, exciting, pressured and sometimes scary place. In the first story, written in 2000, Mel Gussow tells of living next door to the townhouse blown up in 1970; in the last (no. 40, 2002), Wendell Jamieson interviews the nurse who 40 years previously tended the dying boy who fell from the sky in the plane crash in Brooklyn in 1960. The question how 9/11 changed the city and its inhabitants haunts the reader and some entries. Jan Morris (no. 8), who visited New York regularly, documenting changes over 50 years, concluded tentatively in 2003 that 'native optimism' had survived. Jerome Charyn (no. 26, 2004) was not so sure. New York exacts a toll on its admirers, but it is the price of becoming a native or of belonging to a place that inspires dreams and offers secret rewards.