A Town Without Time: Gay Talese’s New York

In this exuberant anthology, journalist Talese (Bartleby and Me) brings together highlights from his six-decade career reporting on New York City. His eclectic range of subjects captures the multitudes contained within the five boroughs, including the gutsy and sometimes reckless ironworkers who built the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the early 1960s, a woman from a wealthy family who chose to live on the streets for reasons opaque to her loved ones and Talese, and a physician who blew up his Manhattan townhouse with himself inside to prevent his ex-wife from claiming the property in their divorce. Other selections focus on more well-known New Yorkers. For instance, Talese investigates how the 1964 kidnapping of mobster Joe Bonanno rippled through his biological and crime families, and offers an intimate account of a playful studio session with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. Talese’s exceptional eye for character shines in his 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra, which portrays the crooner as a lion in winter fighting off not only a cold but also the cultural upheavals of the 1960s that left him straining for relevance. Each piece reads like a gripping short story, rendered in vivid detail by an assured writer who helped transform reporting into a literary endeavor. This love letter to the Big Apple doubles as a testament to Talese’s considerable skills. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Dec.)