The City in Literature: An Intellectual and Cultural History
...an ambitiously wide-ranging and erudite account of not simply how western novelists have depicted the city in their work but of how the very form of the city has influenced the novel. [Lehan] displays more affinity for literary theory than for the texture and life of cities, and accordingly the discussion takes place on a fairly abstract plane.... [H]owever, the city is built as much upon imagination as with concrete and steel, so there is something to be said for Lehan's approach.   --The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Tom Vanderbilt