What is the importance of New York City in the collection, Table For Two?

The bulk of the stories in "Table for Two" take place in New York City, and are similarly interested in the lifestyles of the people in a particular region of the nation. The promise of New York is one that is looked at through a number of lenses; Pushkin and Irina arrive there penniless and are therefore forced to scrap their way to the top, Timothy is sustained by delusions of grandeur related to his artistic talent, and Percy sees the entire art industry in the city as an opportunity to make dishonest money, to name a few. Regardless, the bustling and eclectic qualities of New York come through in nearly every story, as does its intense stratification of wealth, which divides its more moneyed denizens from the bulk of its residents. New York, then, serves a mirrored function to Los Angeles in the collection, although the former is more interested in old money and the latter more in new.