A TOWN WITHOUT TIME

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’s Paris 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.