The Nest

By setting The Nest in the borough of Manhattan and its neighborhoods, Sweeney participates in a long tradition of situating novels in New York City. Authors frequently use NYC as a setting in part for the city’s renown and in part for its history. With nicknames like “The Big Apple” and “The City That Never Sleeps,” NYC is an advantageous setting because many readers are instantly familiar with the locale. Landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, and Times Square are well-known and familiar, even for readers who have never set foot in the city.

Part of the city’s allure is its large and diverse population. During the nation’s second immigration boom from 1880 to 1920, over 20 million immigrants arrived. As New York City’s Ellis Island was one of the nation’s primary points of entry, many citizens settled in the city (“U.S. Immigration Timeline.” History, 23 Aug. 2022). As a result, New York City remains a center of ethnic and cultural diversity. The city is filled with a variety of kinds of people, from financial experts working on Wall Street to artists engaged in activities in Broadway’s Theater District to workers in the city’s numerous restaurants and shops. It is a cultural mecca known for its museums and is also regarded as an important city for the fashion industry.

Likewise, the city contains a range of densely populated neighborhoods, housing both wealthy elites and people of lower economic classes. These dichotomies make the city rife with tension, lending to the conflicts that drive fiction and making the city itself a character. Indeed, The Nest takes advantage of the city’s renown by situating scenes in famous locales, such as Grand Central Station and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and by referencing well-known historical events that impact its characters, such as the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Further, the inciting incident in the novel takes place between a high-status socialite and a server who is undocumented and aspires to a career as a singer, thus examining a realistic intersection of contrasting social classes and aspirations that the setting makes possible.

In addition, New York City is home to several major publishers, and thus many writers throughout history have made their homes there and even sparked literary and cultural movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance. Writers such as Herman Melville, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, Grace Paley, and Phillip Roth are among the many authors who have called the city home. Well-known novels set in the city include Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, and Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy. Tracing the steps of famous literary figures is a popular tourist activity.