Looking for Lucia in New York, New York

Ferries, sisters, and a surprise cocktail bar on the fifth stop of my Lucia Berlin research trip

Hello, friends —

For everyone who’s subscribed since my letters from Alaska, Texas, Mexico, Chile and New Mexico: welcome! If you’d like to read more about Looking for Lucia, my forthcoming biography of Lucia Berlin, check out my previous posts here.

The fifth stop on my literary road trip was New York City, where Lucia lived at the turn of the 1960s. Her short story ‘A Foggy Day’ — one of my personal favourites — is set in downtown Manhattan during that period. Lucia’s protagonist, Lisa, takes a friend from out of town on the Hoboken ferry. Here I am, writing on that same ferry.

First Impression

New York City was the first stop on this trip that I already had an impression of, because I lived there for most of my early twenties, and my sister lives there now — so this was tough.

Luckily, coming from rural New Mexico helped me to see the city through Lucia’s eyes, and I was struck above all by the size of the place: the crowds, the buildings! Even during the 1950s, the urban landscape must have been on a different scale to any of Lucia’s previous homes.

As she puts it in one of her early letters to Ed Dorn — which you can read in her wonderful memoir —

And it is TOO much, N.Y… It is VAST… All these people LIVE in it, in every block and they are all going upstairs or downstairs or in or out and they are all a part of a block, a whole endless block with delicatessens and shoe stores and people going upstairs and downstairs.

I love how her sentence runs polysyndetically across clauses and lines — across the ‘block’ of the paragraph — like the people going up and down staircases on a city block.

Best Discovery

I knew that I had to visit the Algonquin Hotel bar at some point, because Lucia used to meet her agent there — lots more on all that in my book. I was dreading it, though, because it’s near Times Square, which stresses me out.

To my enormous shock, though, the bar was genuinely nice. Here I am, writing with a lime and soda. (I had a martini later.)

Other writers who hung out there include Maya Angelou, Dorothy Parker and Tennessee Williams. I recommend the bar as a peaceful oasis, next time you’re stuck in Times Square.

Worst Discovery

Lucia’s second Manhattan apartment is on the exact site of what later became the World Trade Center — what is now the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. It was very moving to visit, and to read the names carved into the parapets.

Last Impression

I stayed with my sister in Manhattan, as I always do (thanks, babe!). As I ‘borrowed’ her makeup remover for the zillionth time, I thought of Lucia and her own younger sister, Molly — they were also a family of two girls.

Like Lucia and Molly, my sister and I have spent most of our lives in different countries, but we’re very close, and when we get together, we talk and talk and talk. This time, we talked a lot about sisterhood: what it meant to us, and what it might have meant to Lucia and Molly.

In Lucia’s short story ‘Grief’ — which I adore, and which you should read — two sisters go on holiday together. They ‘forgot their papaya, their huevos rancheros, talking, talking. Later, as they walked by the edge of the sea, their heads were bent toward one another. Talking, talking.’

If you have a sister you’ve been meaning to talk to, here’s your reminder to give her a call.

Final Thought

I love that so many of you were so curious about the radar dome I hiked out to in the New Mexico desert! By popular demand, here’s what it sounded like through my field recorder. Eerie, right?

I’m off to look for Lucia in another new country now! Thank you all so much for coming with me, and for cheering me on. It means the world.

Nina

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