Gay Talese Finally Publishes Story Decades in the Making

It’s a nicer kind of day when a man finally gets to write about one of his decades-long obsessions. In this case: Gay Talese and 206 E. 63rd Street (New Yorker, subscription only), the site of at least a dozen failed restaurants, and, for now, at least, the story of the address has an ending. The doomed building is being (inexplicably) purchased by a 77-year-old Buddhist monk, to be used as a monastery. (Presumably the former panhandler turned purveyor of meditation temples has met with fluidity along the way, as the purchase price of the building was $5.6 million.)