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.)

Revisiting Gotham. "New York is a city of things unnoticed,'' Talese writes at the outset of his latest collection, a spirited compendium of pieces that deal with everything from the preferred habitations of the wild cats of Manhattan to the builders of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the social protocols of George Plimpton'sParis Review set, and the kidnapping of mobster Joe Bonanno. It's a bit of misdirection. Talese is nothing if not a noticer, focusing on the grainy details that distinguish journalism that aspires to literary art from dutiful wire service reports. The book shines with the love that the author, the son of an Atlantic City tailor, bears for his adopted home, giving E.B. White's legendary ode,Here Is New York, a run for its money. Documenting his journalistic doggedness, the entries are preceded with reproductions of Talese's original typescript, dotted with emendations and reminders of where he wants to take the tale. Much of this deeply reported material is repurposed from earlier pieces, often updated. For example,The Bridge, detailing how the Verrazano-Narrows structure championed by "master builder'' Robert Moses forced Brooklynites from their Bay Ridge homes, was first published as a stand-alone volume in 1959. Here, it includes a preface for a new edition, released in tandem with the 50th anniversary of its opening. His understated portrait of Bill Bonanno, the ambivalent but dutiful son of the kidnapped mobster, is notable not only for its narrative, but the skill it took to gain access to this famously private circle. The collection includes Talese's previously published iconic piece, "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,'' which appeared in his 2023 collection,Bartleby and Me. Despite that caveat, one must pay the nonagenarian auteur his due. Even on rereading, Talese's work gets better, like fine wine. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.