Leviathan by Paul Auster

Auster's book is written from the point of view of Peter Aaron, writer, and is his biography of his friend, political writer turned activist, Benjamin Sachs.  Aaron uncovers Sachs' life, their shared history in New York, lovers, friends, and what drove his friend to become so alienated from and opposed to corporate America.

The Blindfold by Suri Hustvedt

The first time I read this book I really didn't like it, then I reread it and began to be enchanted. On one level it is the story of the coming of age of Iris Vegan, an intellectually intelligent but emotionally naive midwest girl come to New York to university. Like a little girl in a fairytale she meets a cast of characters on the streets and in the buildings of the urban jungle, the creepy obsessive Mr Morning, the too too cool Stephen and his artistic friends, Iris' professor lover and Iris' own transformation into a she/he wandering the seedier pits of the urban landscape and New York itself. Iris an literature student and she describes the world around her in first person narration through the filter of her heroines. Give it time and it will haunt you.