Literary Brooklyn: A Real Life Tour of 10 Fictional Brooklyn Places
Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem
So you’ve already made it to ten different spots in fictional Brooklyn, but if you really want to hit the jackpot, you should probably read Motherless Brooklyn and see how many places you recognize. Lethem gives shout-outs to everything from Ziad’s deli on Smith Street to Woodhull (Woodhell?) Hospital to the stately houses of DeGraw Street. I’ve included photos of a few of these places here, but you should just try and spend a day going everywhere mentioned in the book. Ok, it’ll probably take you more than a day. But you’ll get to know Brooklyn better than anyone other than Lionel Essrog. Which, lucky you. There wouldn’t be so many people writing about it if it wasn’t such a rich, fertile place for the imagination.
Follow Kristin Iversen on twitter @kmiversen