For many in book publishing, the departure marks the end of an era, when authors having meetings at the Flatiron was a rite of passage.
“My publishing life was born and raised in the Flatiron,” said Louise Penny, a best-selling crime writer who even has a Flatiron charm on her keychain. “Behind the breathtaking and famous facade was a rabbit warren, some might say rat’s nest. Books and files were piled everywhere.”
The literary agent Christopher Schelling is equally nostalgic. “Symbolically it means something,” he said of Macmillan’s move, recalling how he often warned his writers that the conference rooms inside the Flatiron were definitely not as stylish as the building’s exterior. But that this was part of the fascination of the place.
The everything bagel is the king of bagels. On this there should be no argument. In the same way that it combines all of the key bagel toppings—sesame and poppy seeds, dried garlic and onion, and coarse salt—it’s also a combination of ancient traditions and new fads, Eastern ingredients and Western techniques. With cream cheese and lox, it creates, more or less, the perfect bite.
There are, however, arguments about who invented the everything bagel, and none of them are particularly compelling. Several New Yorkers have staked their claims as its inventor, including restaurateur Joe Bastianich, but their claims are more like how my mother-in-law half-jokingly claims that she created the concept for the Pixar movie Cars. (“What if the cars in the parking lot came to life and could talk?”)
Sameer Rahim’s debut novel is a tender, pin-sharp portrait of a marriage and a community. It is a wonderful achievement; an invigorating reminder of the power fiction has to challenge lazy stereotypes, and stretch the reader’s heart.
This is a book almost relentless in its pursuit of some of the worst crimes that are, even now, going on through the cracks of "polite society". Although the story is told with compassion, it leaves one wondering and covertly looking around. In short, The Dangerous Kind is disturbingly relevant.