Pulp Fiction

I had a moment when I felt like a true New Yorker yesterday.

I finished an old novel by Lawrence Block called, "A Stab in the Dark." It was a juicy little murder mystery that took place in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. As I read the book on the train, I could visualize every location in the book- from Midtown to the streets of Cobble and Boerum Hills. I knew every intersection and almost every building mentioned. At the same time, the book evoked a New York City completely unknown to me. My imagination was stirred by grittier streets where the boutiques of today were replaced by bodegas and the trees on the sidewalks had not yet been planted.

I wonder if, years from now, I will think back on my time here and falsely remember the gentrification of these neighborhoods and think back to the good old days of New York that I never lived except through dime store novels.