Brooklyn
Story Stream
That Collective Feeling September 24, 2024
In the mid-2010s, young Brooklynites well acquainted with the borough’s nightlife shared a psychogeography that was rooted around the Myrtle-Broadway subway stop. Upon exiting, you were greeted by the sight that began and ended your night—a trio of f...
There Will Never Be Another Sally Rooney September 23, 2024
A few years ago, someone posted a photo of a man walking through Brooklyn with a copy of Conversations With Friends tucked in the back of his trousers, the name Sally Rooney peeking out above his waistband. It was an accessory that telegraphed as muc...
Rejecting Rejection September 20, 2024
The late philosopher Gilles Deleuze is known for his concept of the rhizome, defined as a network that connects any point to any other point. The most obvious example of a rhizome is the internet: instead of having a linear structure, the internet al...
Only Disconnect September 19, 2024
The women are in their early thirties or late twenties. Both remain nameless. Their parents have died in separate car accidents. They live alone—a small apartment in Tel Aviv, a larger one bedroom in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. One has a brother who sends...
Sex, Drugs, Raves and Heartbreak September 13, 2024
The “breakdown” in the subtitle of Emily Witt’s haunting new book, “Health and Safety,” isn’t hers. It belongs to Andrew, her boyfriend of four years; he started behaving erratically when pandemic lockdowns in 2020 put an end to the underground party...
On Richard Flanagan's 'Question 7' September 12, 2024
A few years ago, I met up with my friend Michael Reynolds, editor-in-chief of Europa Editions and publisher of such global luminaries as Elena Ferrante and Mieko Kawakami, at a bar in our Brooklyn neighborhood. I was working on a piece about Richard ...
Valley of the Books June 05, 2024
At the very tip of McCarren Park, in Greenpoint, on a block that has a Starbucks and an overpriced luxury-apartment eyesore, sits a nondescript, three-story building. It belongs to Bill Hall, the 60-year-old proprietor of High Valley Books, who runs ...
A Conversation with Cally Fiedorek June 03, 2024
Last year, I had the pleasure of offering a blurb for Atta Boy, Cally Fiedorek’s debut novel. I was struck, right away, by her ability to so seamlessly navigate across the social strata of New York City. This is a vanishing art in the world of litera...
