New York can be a real pain in the neck

When I moved to New York I developed a bit of an addiction (if there can be such a thing) to buying books about this great city.  My bookcase now strains under the weight of guidebooks about New York, photo anthologies of New York, and even short stories by New York writers.  I've also bought novels simply because they're set in New York.

 

Case in point, last night I completed Book 1 of "The Strain" trilogy, by acclaimed writer and director Guillermo del Toro (of the brilliant "Pan's Labyrinth") and writer Chuck Hogan, whose IMDB photo makes him seem very grumpy, but I'm sure he's not always that way.  As you'd probably know, the books have now been turned into a TV series but I haven't seen any of that yet - I wanted to read the books first.

Aside from being a creepy and, at times, graphic tale about vampires and the rampage of a vampire virus across the island of Manhattan, Book 1 was also a great tour of four of the five New York boroughs (poor Staten Island only gets a fleeting mention in this first instalment).  Book 1 is quite the New York tour guide.  One minute you're in the hustle-bustle of Manhattan, then you're on the quiet, tree-lined streets of Westchester, then the struggling areas of Flatbush in Brooklyn, and finally the crowded apartment complexes of The Bronx and Queens.
 
As I read Book 1, I was particularly excited to realise that much of the action transpired in places so familiar to me.  The headquarters of the New York chapter of the Center for Disease Control is around the corner from my apartment.  Face-offs with the vampires occured near the Ghostbusters firehouse in TriBeCa, where I was just last weekend.  And one of the book's heroes has his pawn shop in Spanish Harlem, on the same block wher I attended the great Italian festival earlier this month.  And these are just a few of the great locations that Del Toro and Hogan mention.  Some creepy stuff also happens in the abandoned City Hall subway station with the gorgeous tiled roof, which I learned all about on my visit to the Museum of the City of New York not so long ago.  I loved it.

I'm not sure how much detail the TV series takes from the book, but reading Book 1 definitely taught me more than I probably cared to know about the prevalence and behaviours of New York City's rat population too.  Shudder.

What with all the Ebola news dominating media coverage lately, I was a bit jolted by the speed with which the story's vampire plague spreads.  And I started to wonder whether I also ought to assemble a disaster preparedness kit ("go bag"), as one of the main characters has done - and as the Office of Emergency Management recommends we all do.  Now I'm no Doomsday Prepper, but I also don't want to be caught short when it all hits the fan, right?  My survival instinct during Super Storm Sandy involved leftover pizza and multiple bottles of red wine, but that is a story for another time.

New York is an obvious setting for books and movies, providing an endless source of inspiration for authors, directors, and more.  The longer I live here the more these stories resonate with me and I hope that feeling never goes away. All the same though, I think I'll take a bit of a break before starting Book 2 of The Strain trilogy.  As much as I enjoy a gory plot and heroic battles between good and evil, I really don't want to rush head-long into more stories about New Yorkers joining the ranks of the homicidal undead.  Real life in this crazy town can be stressful enough.