New York City

New York City is presented as a remembered point of origin in Jacob’s life, not as an active setting. His recollections connect growing up there with summer journeys to Sandy Hook, while his later departure from the United States and weariness with big cities place the city within a larger movement away from his earlier life.

Childhood and Family Memories

Jacob says he grew up in New York City. His summers included trips with his grandfather, Zeyde, to Sandy Hook in New Jersey. To make one of those journeys, Zeyde borrowed a car from a man who worked with him at an appliance store and drove them down to the shore. The recollection gives Jacob’s childhood a specific geography: the city where he grew up and the nearby coast where he spent time with his grandfather.

The shore returns to Jacob’s mind later, as he sits with a woman in St. Nacho’s. Remembering the water off Sandy Hook, he distinguishes that ocean from the one before him. New York City thus enters the narrative indirectly, through the childhood memory attached to a landscape beyond the city.

Departure and Later Perspective

At a later point, Jacob reflects that he left the United States to make aliyah at his grandfather’s urging and lived in Israel. The evidence establishes this departure as part of his history, though it does not specify that he left directly from New York City. Later, walking near the highway, he wonders whether he belongs in St. Nacho’s and thinks he has had enough of big cities. The contrast makes New York City part of the life he remembers, while his uncertain sense of belonging takes shape elsewhere.