Chapter One
The Holiday 鸡尾酒 Lounge

It was always 圣诞节 down at the Holiday 鸡尾酒 Lounge on St. Mark's Place in the East Village; the twinkling lights were left hanging up on the crossbeams year-round, just like the silver tinsel looped around the edge of the counter and the cheerful 树 in the back, its ornaments glittering in the dim light. The Holiday, as the regulars called it, was a New York institution. The bar had been a speakeasy during Prohibition, and counted as its patrons the poet W. H. Auden, who lived 下一个 door, and Trotsky, who bunked across the street.

No one could...