New York City

Much of the novel takes place in New York City as a result of Cyrus' decision to travel there in order to meet the artist Orkideh. New York is an important backdrop to both the novel's plot and its themes, as the bustling excess of the place often serves a symbolic or gestural significance to the novel as an example of capitalism, industry, and western culture. The cold, fast-paced, and impersonal nature of the city is routinely contrasted against the intimacy of Cyrus' conversations with Orkideh and Zee, and even his more parochial lifestyle in semi-rural Indiana, where he was raised as a child. New York also occupies a tantalizing role in Cyrus' life as a place where artists who have "made it" find success, a dynamic that is typified by Orkideh's story of coming to New York as a refugee and managing to make her...