Lawrence Block: 1970s New York

Don't miss this great article about Lawrence Block on NPR. "Mystery Writer Evokes the Sights, Sound and Grime of 1970s New York."

Crime fiction writer Lawrence Block lives in New York's West Village, in a stately art deco building overlooking Abingdon Square. He bought an apartment there decades before actress Jennifer Aniston did. (She sold hers shortly thereafter.) Block is 76, silver-haired and keen-eyed; and in his pastel shirt and khakis, he looks decidedly more Hamptons than downtown.

Sitting on a park bench in Abingdon Square, Block points out a building on the corner that used to be a nursing home. Before gentrification, ambulances constantly rushed its inhabitants to St. Vincent's Hospital, sirens wailing. Now, both are multimillion-dollar condos.

Read the rest of the article here.