Memories of Olde New York: Union Square

Union Square has changed a lot over the years. Until fairly recently there was nothing on the south side of the park, no Whole Foods, no Shoegasm, no Nutz4Nuts cart. Pretty much a wasteland. A Lionel Kiddie City toy store stood on the east side, which later became a Toys ‘R Us, which begat a Babies ‘R Us. It was the Benjamin Button of toy store locations.

Once when it was a Toys ‘R Us, a man was leaving the store as I was headed in. I reached the door first and held it open for him. It’s a move that just makes it easier for whomever’s coming and going.

So I held the door open and out he walked without ever saying “thanks.” That’s really all you have to do when someone holds the door open. As easy as holding the door is, saying “thanks” is somehow easier. So job half done on his part.

That’s when I laid it out - “You’re welcome, Rick Ocasek.” because it was Rick Ocasek, the in demand producer and vocalist for The Cars who left and didn’t say “thank you” as the door was held open for him.

And that’s what New York was like circa 2002.

An interview with noted author Ely Levin

The bio on your publisher’s site calls you “the world’s least prolific writer.”

I didn’t write that, that's probably my editor.

Your most recent work is And so Kansas Gave Way to Colorado, Which Took the Rest of the Day and Half the Night to Get Through

Published earlier this year, in February, right.

The title is just slightly longer than the story

A sentence long, yes. I won't type it here, my publisher would kill me! That’d be giving it away!

The story's technically a sentence fragment. Summarizing it, it’s the story of a man’s cross-country road trip from New York to California following the end of a relationship, a lot like On the Road, but vastly shorter. It's 19 words long.

I never counted, but it was on the long-ish side.

How’d the project come about?

The story had been kicking about in my head for ages, well before I finished my previous piece, Life, the World, and all its Atrocities (In General). I was at a cocktail party one night and someone asked what I was working on. The story wasn't fully formed at this point, just bits and pieces, the narrative wasn’t there. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with it, but this night, at this cocktail party, it just clicked and - bluh! - out it came.


What’s your process?

Even though the narrative was worked out, I think I wrote seven drafts in the end. Fitzgerald would write the first draft of a short story, put it aside, and come back to it a week or so later just so he’d have a fresh set of eyes. I take the same approach, every few months I’d come back to it, pick it up again, re-work it a bit more.

Today it seems like you can’t just write a book, you have to go out on a publicity tour, do readings, signings. Do you enjoy that?

I do. It's why I got into writing, to tell stories that really engage people. I try to make each event special, usually I read something that’s not been published. Just last week in Portland I read a piece entitled “What I Did on my Summer Vacation,” which I wrote in 1981 in the 5th grade. It moved people, they got pretty quiet. For me it was "a moment."

So far you’ve published 7 works totaling 9 sentences, including the fragment of a sentence for And so Kansas Gave Way to Colorado, Which Took the Rest of the Day and Half the Night to Get Through. What’s your next project?

And so Kansas... wiped me out. For several weeks after I finished it I just felt spent. I thought I'd never pick up a pen or sit down to write again. But after a few months off I called my agent and he's just sold my next project. It’s an anthology, all my works to date. I’m excited, most of the early works are long out of print.


This interview was conducted via email over the course of 23 months, beginning April, 2008. Levin’s And so Kansas Gave Way to Colorado, Which Took the Rest of the Day and Half the Night to Get Through is in bookstores everywhere now.