By the Book: Familiar Places in Susanna Kaysen’s New Book, Cambridge

Photograph courtesy of Knopf

“From the swimming pool by the river at Magazine Street where my mother took me in the dog days to the Star Market on the way to Watertown where she dragged me weekly was at least four miles…”

“I could spend chilly November Saturday mornings on my bike while Roger sang sol la ti sol at Longy. I’d ride past the school, a sprawling brownstone on Garden Street, and feel happyand free.”

“The house had a magnificent, two-story, arched, mullioned window…with a view of the rundown Hotel Continental across the road.”

“In Harvard Square bits of scrap paper were scooting around the empty streets and everything was asleep…”

“I stood beside my bicycle, looking at Memorial Church, where in the spring a platform would be built…to enact commencement.”