A new anthology gathers writings on New York's Central Park, which includes an observation by the artist Christo that the park is "the most unusual and surrealistic place in New York City."
Other writers in the anthology share Christo's take on the park, offering up surreal fiction or non-fiction reflections, writes reviewer Michiki Kakutani:
"Perhaps this has to do with the illusion that Olmsted and Vaux created, using artifice to make an exhilarating work of art that is at once a marvel of nature and the most cherished public space in New York City. Perhaps it has something to do with the electric green of the park, set against the concrete gray of the city streets, or the landscape's organic asymmetries, so rigidly contained by its geometric frame. Perhaps it is simply the tranquillity and repose offered by this pastoral haven of quiet, deep in the heart of the noisy metropolis," writes Kakutani.
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