Asian or African Town

"New York was getting worse than Naples or Salonika. It was like an Asian, an African town, from this standpoint. The opulent sections of the city were not immune. You opened a jeweled door into degradation, from hypercivilized  Byzantine luxury straight into the state of nature, the barbarous world of color erupting from beneath."
Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler's Planet

Sodom and Gomorrah

Eighth Avenue

"New York makes one think of the collapse of civilization, about Sodom and Gomorrah, the end of the world. The end wouldn't come as a surprise here. Many people already bank on it."
Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler's Planet