Manhattan: America's Literary Living Room?

So many American novels are set in New York, and especially Manhattan, that it seems that it is America's -- at least America's literary -- living room. Of course one reason is that many writers live there, or have lived there, or have studied there. And it is, after all, the U. S. center for literature as it is for most arts. (Although many writers live here in San Francisco and surroundings, and there is an active literary scene here, as well as world-class opera, ballet, museums, theater, etc., I have to concede that New York is still the center.) But beyond that, it is a place that most novel readers know; whether or not they live in or regularly visit New York, they have read so many novels set there that they feel they know it. Readers feel we know that long thin borough, with Central Park a long vertical inside a vertical, through the top and middle, and with all the other familiar areas: the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, Midtown, the Village, Chelsea, Harlem, Morningside Heights, etc., etc. We know Fifth Avenue, the Theater District, Columbus Circle, Times Square, Wall Street, Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, and many more familiar landmarks. We know about yellow cabs, and doormen buildings, and all the cultural events at the Lincoln Center. We know about the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Museum of Natural History. We are very familiar with the campuses of Columbia University and NYU. We know about Zabar's, Dean & Deluca, and Fairway, and we know you can get food delivered to your door from hundreds of restaurants. And we know about the amazing restaurants! So of course we feel comfortable when we pick up a novel set in Manhattan; for readers, it belongs to all of us!