New York City

New York City is portrayed throughout the book as a center of contrasts of both possibility and frustration and of hope and of despair. Jones is at his most vulnerable and his most victorious, his most seedy and his most successful, circumstances that are a direct result of the city and the life lived there by Jones and by his various associates.

The YMCA

YMCA is short for "Young Men's Christian Association." There have been YMCA organizations and buildings in almost every city in North America for decades. They have been, and were originally intended to be, places where men could exercise, relax, and in many cases find temporary accommodation for a minimal fee. The YMCA has also been a place where men could have sexual encounters with each other. In recent years the YMCA has rehabilitated both its image and its practices, opening its...