Significance of The New York Observer Building

This is the site of a historically documented fire, the origins of which, according to the author's after-word, have never been conclusively defined. Its incorporation in the novel is a key example of the way actual events, situations, and people have been tapped into in order to create this work of fiction. The building provides the setting for a key confrontation between Carmody and Pickering, overheard by Si and Julia. Its destruction, as the result of that confrontation, is perhaps symbolic of the destructive power of greed and ambition embodied in both Carmody and Pickering