Corona, Queens

Corona, Queens is the novel's primary setting. Corona is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York. This is where Razia lives with her mother and father, and later with her baby sister Safia. In the novel's opening chapter, Razia describes Corona as follows; "I'm talking about a little village perched under the number 7 train in Queens between Junction Boulevard and 111th Street. I’m talking about the Lemon Ice King, Spaghetti Park, and P.S. 19. The Corona F. Scott Fitzgerald called the valley of ashes as the Great Gatsby drove past it on his night of carousal, but what me and my own know as home” (3). As a child, Razia simply regards Corona as the place where she lives and belongs. However, over the course of the novel, as Razia comes of age, she starts to regard Corona as symbolic of entrapment. She becomes desperate...