Like most of Bell's fiction, Waiting for the End of the World is set primarily in New York. Here Larkin meets two characters who play larger roles in other Bell novels: Porco Miserio in The Washington Square Ensemble and Charles (Charlie) Mercer in Save Me, Joe Louis (1993). Also David Hutton's story of his brush with the law is similar to that of Macrae. Moreover, Larkin, Arkady, and their friend Sparrow are filmmakers, as is the protagonist in Straight Cut (1986), and photography figures prominently both in this novel and in Save Me, Joe Louis.