Jonathan Franzen closes the chapter on his $2M Upper East Side co-op

Just last month, the New York Times interviewed novelist Jonathan Franzen on his move from the Upper East Side to a suburban street in Santa Cruz, California. After having a long-distance relationship with his “spouse equivalent,” writer Kathryn Chetkovich, he agreed to move to the west coast, saying he didn’t miss Yorkville, the “last middle-class neighborhood in Manhattan,” at all. And he’s now made that perfectly clear, unloading his three-bedroom co-op at 140 East 81st Street for $2 million, according to city records.

Though the kitchen could use some updating, the corner unit has lovely pre-war details like herringbone oak floors, crown moldings, and beamed ceilings. The master bedroom has a walk-in closet, and there’s plenty of light from three exposures.

In the Times interview, Franzen noted how the Upper East Side has been changing with the opening of the Second Avenue Subway, saying that his favorite produce market was replaced with a bank and the Food Emporium he once enjoyed shopping at is now a Gristedes that resembles “a Soviet-era rations market.” An extremely avid and serious birdwatcher, he’s taken to the more suburban and “secluded” lifestyle in Santa Cruz.

[Listing: 140 East 81st Street, 10G by Trevor Connolly and Kirk Eckenrode of Elegran]

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• Katie Couric sells her Park Avenue pad for $7.8M
• John Steinbeck’s former Upper East Side home, complete with his original writing desk, asks $5M

Listing photos courtesy of Elegran