"Life bustles and the truest fictions simmer in this city I’ve never been to—the lives influenced here, the scenes remembered for their reality, their vibrancy, their truth: how did Holden Caulfield decide it was time? where did Nick Caraway get his break and settle the hell down? how did Francie Nolan feel about these cigarette-lined streets? why didn’t Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska get consummate without all the fuss? I’ve never been to New York but I find some pizza slices on the East Side of Fifty-ninth at a shop with two vendors occupying the same space, both vying for my dollars. I rip one in half, make them share, congratulate myself on getting the hang of New York and walk out the back exit to Park Place, on Fifth Avenue, and realize, looking across the Hudson to see Long Island City’s hazy ball of shame in the clouded light of lunch time, that I’ll never understand New York because I’ve never been to New York." Read more from "I've Never Been to New York" by Michael Badger here: http://www.theotherstories.org/ive-never-new-york-michael-badger/
