MY WEEKEND: Nelson DeMille
Best-selling author Nelson DeMille lives in Garden City, LI, and makes a monthly trip to NYC for a weekend with his wife, Sandy, and their son, James. DeMille, who was born in Queens, but grew up on Long Island, says, “Now [the city’s] in full bloom again
When we come into the city, we’re touristy and parents at the same time. I’m in my 70s, my wife is 50, and our son is 10, so we have to make peace with the three generations. On Friday nights we’ll go to the ‘21’ Club — that’s my adult place. It’s the perfect place to go when you’re tired and have had a long week. That place is magic. I always get the steak tartare; that’s where I get my raw-meat fix.
I like Barneys and Saks on a Saturday afternoon. I was born here and these places remind me of old New York, so, for me, it’s like returning to early childhood. I have my memories of Saks and Bonwit Teller. We had no money, mind you; we weren’t shopping there. My mother liked to walk through the stores, look at everything, and then go get a sandwich. That would be a classic 1950s weekend.
All of my John Corey books are set in the city [Corey is a detective and recurring character in DeMille’s books, first appearing in the 1997 thriller “Plum Island”], so when I’m in the city on the weekend, I try to go to places that I’m writing about. I’ve been to Federal Plaza more times than I want to remember, and when the World Trade Center site was being rebuilt, I’d go to the observation platform.
I go to the Strand, but most of the old bookstores are gone now. I do go to Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side; I like them because they’re big and they always have all of my books! James loves bookstores and likes seeing his dad’s books on the shelves — he thinks it’s cool.
We spend a lot of time at the Museum of Natural History. We won a night there once at an auction and we rented a bus for James’ class — it took them into the city and to the museum for a scavenger hunt. The kids loved it, and I was really happy to be able to have that experience with them.
Sunday mornings, we’ll have brunch at the Friars Club — I’m a member — and we’ll meet up with our friends Linda [Stasi] and Sid [Davidoff] and the kids and grandkids will be there. The young kids don’t sit long, so I tell them that the ghosts of monks are in the basement. They make a game of it and run around the club looking for the monks. I have a 37-year-old, a 39-year-old and a 10-year-old, so I’m learning again how to amuse children.