The son of biracial parents
The idea of race is explored through one character with a hybridized experience of race. Although the novel takes place in New York City, he is actually half Nigerian and half German, so his roots are in Africa and Europe. This makes his point of view essentially "New York" because it is diverse, and because he also came to the city to find a good life for himself. The symbolic character of Julius suggests seeing things from multiple points of view with a kind of scientific curiosity and simultaneous skepticism.
Ground Zero
As the character contemplates his struggle for emotional attachment, he passes by a hallmark of American history, Ground Zero, the location of the infamous 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, which points the reader to the shared experience of suffering. Although those plane crashes were heard around the world, it was felt in the city in its own way, so as a symbol, it unites the people of New York. It represents unity through shared suffering.
The affair
Just like Camus's The Stranger, this novel depicts a man struggling to connect with reality who is using sexuality as an avenue to explore connection and intimacy. Julius is like Camus's Stranger because he doesn't really love his Czech girlfriend, not because he isn't open to that, but rather because he wants to experience something grand and amazing, and he can't find it. The affair symbolizes the frustration of his efforts for intimacy.
Openness as a motif
As the title suggests, New York City can be viewed as an Open place. As immigrants, the city was open to his family, and the city is open to him as the public. He can walk wherever he likes, go sight-seeing if he wants, or he can go to get a bite to eat. The idea of openness points the reader toward freedom, which is what Julius seems to prize about his life: the freedom to make a way for himself.
The allegorical wanderer
This story shows its protagonist to be a kind of wandering witness, like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner for instance, but instead of shooting an albatross, what was Julius's breach of innocence? Perhaps it is his dual identity as a biracial person. He feels deep connections to his African heritage, but at the same time, he recognizes that there is value in his German ancestry as well, though his relationship to European culture is obviously strained. This makes his point of view somewhat objective, so this novel is something like an Open witnessing of New York City.
