Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for NY

Here's the thing about New York: It touches you. It's really that simple and basic. Whether its touch compels you to spend a lifetime in its grip or the touch results in a momentary-lapse-of-logic-temporary sojourn, it doesn't matter. Once you have set foot on its gum-sticky concrete, you have been affected. That's the theme that comes across loud and clear in the anthology, Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York, edited by Sari Botton. This anthology comes on the heels of its antithesis predecessor, Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York.

Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York. Edited by Sari Button

While there are a few prevailing similarities in some of these essays (think: Woody Allen movies, the ever-changing dining establishments), for the most part each writer contributes their own voice and New York experience to this anthology. From the opener by Roseanne Cash, filled in nicely with pieces from Amy Sohn, Whoppi Goldberg, Elizabeth Gilbert, Susan Orlean, Phillip Lopate, Nick Flynn and my personal favorite essay of the group, Stephen Elliott's But Why Did You Move Here?.

These 25 essays read equally as love letters and break up letters, writers in love with the New York embedded in their memories, the New York that shaped them from childhood, the New York that offered itself up for school field trips, the New York that held promises of THE only college experience that mattered, the New York where working and living and essentially being an adult was the holy grail and the New York that could not hold them forever. The essays are full of the writer's feelings of New York, whether a particular experience or in general. You can't help but nod along in agreement when you hear descriptions of the fifth floor walk up or the signs on the corner bodega, or the early morning back up noises from the garbage truck. But much like any relationship, the one we have with New York is gripping and lifelong. You can leave for a weekend, a year, the rest of your life, but once you have been there it stays with you forever. That's the New York way.

Disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book for review. The opinions stated within this review were my own and were provided without compensation.