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50 Iconic New York City novels - Hi-brow, low-brow, and in between - that illustrate the kaleidoscope of city life (followed by the one or two of the areas of town mentioned in the book) 
LISTED BY YEAR OF PUBLICATION Washington Square (1880) Henry James (In the book Dr. Sloper moves to Washington Square in 1835. James' grandmother grew up at #18 Washington Square North. James grew up on Washington Place east of the park; the building that replaced his house was the location of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire) GREENWICH VILLAGE Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) Stephen Crane (The Bowery) LOWER EAST SIDE The House of Mirth (1905) Edith Wharton (Begins in 1870 at the Academy of Music - Bryant Park; Wharton lived on Park Avenue when she wrote it) UPPER EAST The Age of Innocence (1920) Edith Wharton (New York Opera House; Metropolitan Museum) MIDTOWN The Great Gatsby (1922) F. Scott Fitzgerald (Queensborough Bridge; Penn Station; Yale Club; Metropole Hotel on 43rd St.; The Plaza; Central Park) MIDTOWN Call it Sleep (1934) Henry Roth (9th Street and Avenue D) EAST VILLAGE The Thin Man (1934) Dashiell Hammett (midtown speakeasies; Saks; The Little Theater (240 W. 44th), Hotel Normandie (38th and Broadway; gone) MIDTOWN The League of Frightened Men (1935) Rex Stout (settings) Detective Nero Wolfe's 3-floor brownstone is on the "south side of West 35th Street" which would put it between 5th Ave and the West Side Highway CHELSEA A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) Betty Smith (Williamsburg, Brooklyn) BROOKLYN The Fountainhead (1943) Ayn Rand (Ayn Rand lived at 139 East 35th at Lexington when she wrote the book between 1941 to 1942) MURRAY HILL I, the Jury (1947) Micky Spillane Mike Hammer's Hammer Investigative Agency was in "a two-room suite at the Hackard Building," room 808. Velda, his secretary and associate PI, worked in the other room. Death of a Salesman (play)(1949) Arthur Miller (Brooklyn) BROOKLYN Here is New York (non-fiction) (1949) E. B. White (Turtle Bay Gardens) MIDTOWN The Catcher in the Rye (1951) J.D. Salinger (fictional Hotel Edmont; the Carousel in Central Park; Ernie's Jazz Club in the Village; Biltmore Hotel; "Radio City skating rink"; The Pond in Central Park; Grand Central; the clock at the Biltmore; McBurney School) ) MIDTOWN On The Road (1951) Jack Kerouac (Kerouac wrote it at 450 West 20th St.; at the end of the novel Dean parts from Sal at 20th Street and 7th Ave to walk to Penn Station.) CHELSEA Howl (poem) (1956) Allen Ginsberg (Bowery, the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State Building) EAST VILLAGE Invisible Man (1952) Ralph Ellison (Harlem) HARLEM Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953) James Baldwin (Lemon Ave, Harlem, in the 1930's) HARLEM Go (1952) John Clennon Holmes (the first "beat" novel; Times Square dives) TIMES SQUARE Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) Truman Capote (A "brownstone on the Upper East Side"; in the movie - 169 East 71st Street; Tiffany's) UPPER EAST SIDE Runyon on Broadway (collected short stories) (1950) Damon Runyon (Many of his stories start outside Mindy's (in real life: Lindy's) Restaurant at Broadway and West 51st St. just above Times Square. Guys and Dolls is based on his characters. LOCATION Franny and Zooey (1961) J. D. Salinger (east 70's) UPPER EAST The Group (1963) Mary McCarthy (follows the lives of nine 1933 Vasser classmates, most in New York; Vassar Club was at 138 East 48th; inspired Sex and the City UPPER EAST The Bell Jar (1963) Sylvia Plath (fictional Ladies Day magazine; fictional Amazon Hotel for women) MIDTOWN City of Night (1963) John Rechy (Times Square) TIMES SQUARE Last Exit to Brooklyn (1964) Hubert Selby Jr. (Sunset Park, Brooklyn) BROOKLYN From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967) E.L. Konigsburg (Metropolitan Museum of Art; Grand Central; NYPL; Donnell Library; Automat; Chock Full of Nuts) UPPER EAST SIDE The Chosen (1967) Chiam Potok (Williamsburg) BROOKLYN Down These Mean Streets (1967) Piri Thomas (El Barrio aka Spanish Harlem) HARLEM Rosemary's Baby (1967) Ira Levin The book is set in the Bramford on the upper east side near 6th Ave. and 55th St. The Dakota (Upper West Side) famously played the Bramford in the movie.) UPPER EAST SIDE The Godfather (1969) Mario Puzo (Don Corleone's mansion is in Long Beach, Long Island, next to Queens) QUEENS Time and Again (1970) Jack Finny (Dakota Hotel; 19 Gramercy Park; Madison Square Park) UPPER WEST Special Mention: A non-fiction work on everyone's best list: The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (1974) Robert Caro (his later childhood at East 46th near Fifth Ave.)) CITY HALL Ragtime (1975) E. L. Doctorow (New Rochelle; Lower East Side) LOWER EAST SIDE Winter's Tale (1983) Mark Helprin (Ellis Island; all over) FINANCIAL Bright Lights, Big City (1984) Jay McInerney (fictionalized "New Yorker" offices on 25 West 43rd St; Odeon Restaurant - 145 West Broadway (on cover)) MIDTOWN The cover of Bright Lights, Big City by Jay MacInerney showed the exterior of the Odeon Restaurant at 145 West Broadway at Thomas Street, as well as the World Trade Center towers (book cover illustation by Mac Tauss).
The New York Trilogy (1985, 1986, 1986) Paul Auster (Orange Street, Brooklyn Heights BROOKLYN Slaves of New York (1986) Tama Janowitz (Downtown New York) EAST VILLAGE The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987) Tom Wolfe (The Bronx; Wall St.) FINANCIAL DISTRICT Billy Bathgate (1989) E.L. Doctorow (Bronx) BRONX American Psycho (1991) Bret Easton Ellis (Wall Street) FINANCIAL DISTRICT Jazz (1992) Toni Morrison (Harlem) HARLEM The Alienist (1994) Caleb Carr (Police Headquarters on Mulberry Street; Lower East Side) LOWER EAST SIDE Angela's Ashes (1996) Frank McCourt (Brooklyn) BROOKLYN Underworld (1997) Don Delillo (Polo Grounds, 1951; Arthur Avenue in the Bronx) BRONX Motherless Brooklyn (1999) Jonathan Lethem (Brooklyn) BROOKLYN 'Tis (1999) Frank McCourt (Biltmore Hotel; NYU; Staten Island; Stuyvesant High School at 345 East 15th Street) GRAMERCY The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000) Michael Chabon (Brooklyn; sleeps in Empire State Building) BROOKLYN The Nanny Diaries (#1) (2002) Emma McLaughlin (Park Avenue) UPPER EAST The Devil Wears Prada (2003) Lauren Weisberger (Runway" magazine) MIDTOWN The Fortress of Solitude (2003) Jonathan Lethem (Brooklyn) BROOKLYN Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) Jonathan Safran Foer (World Trade Center) FINANCIAL DISTRICT North River (2007) Pete Hamill (Winter Garden Theater; Lower West Side; Times Sq.; Washington Sq. Park) MIDTOWN Lush Life (2008) Richard Price (Lower East Side) LOWER EAST SIDE Let the Great World Spin (2009) Column McCann (100 Centre St. - The D.A's office; World Trade Center) FINANCIAL Girl in Translation (2010) Jean Kwok (lives in Brooklyn; works in Chinatown) CHINATOWN Open City (2012) Teju Cole (Ground Zero, Harlem, Columbia University; Carnegie Hall) MIDTOWN The Goldfinch (2013) Donna Tartt (Metropolitan Museum of Art; Park Avenue apt.) UPPER EAST Sources: 1) Goodrerads.com: Tales of New York City 2) Gothamist.com: The 16 Best NYC Novels by Rebecca Fishbein 3) The Ultimate Book of New York Lists. Bert Sugar with C. N. Richardson. 2009, New York: Skyhorse Publishing 4) 15 Essential Novels of New York City. Qwiklit.com 5) The 20 books that will make you fall in love with New York City all over again. Maddie Crum. The Huffington Post. 6) The 25 best New York City novels. Ross Scarano, Brenden Gallagher, and Greg Topscher. Complex.com. 7) The Best Books About New York City by Matthew Love (Time Out New York october 14, 2015 8) 10 of the best books set in New York. Travel, The Guardian, by Malcolm Burgess 9) The Best New York City Novels by Neighborhood. Nancy Aravecz, Mid-Manhattan Library. 
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