Never Can Say Goodbye: NYC Is Special
I have always loved New York City, having been born to first-generation parents and native New Yorkers. Everyday invoked a sense of aspiration, and the ability to pursue my wildest dreams and heavily guarded pursuits. It filled me with an ineffable emotion that, after five years of calling NYC home, I still feel whenever stepping outside my Brooklyn apartment. I carry remnants of this great metropolis wherever I go, back to my time spent contemplating the future in Washington Square Park as a doe-eyed NYU student.
Sari Botton
My subway commute to work has become shorter and much more pleasant ever since reading Sari Botton’s Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakeable Love for New York. Botton’s compilation of essayists pouring their hearts out over their irrevocable love for New York City pulls me in and captivates my attention (a distraction I am grateful for aboard a packed D train to 42nd Street). These essays, the rear flap reads, “take place in dive bars and museums, cinemas and old restaurants, horse-drawn carriages and subway cars” (a location we all are much too familiar with), capturing the quintessential essence of living and breathing in the Big Apple. The passage contends, “Never Can Say Goodbye is a must-have for every lover of New York-regardless of whether or not you call the city home” — a statement I believe to be true. It has served as a reminder of both the maddening and intoxicating elements that make New York City second to none.
Never Can Say Goodbye
There is the unshakeable and unmistakable feeling that the city’s limits are unknown. You can find yourself in the depths of the New York Public Library or in a West Village cafe, and even in the confines of the most unsuspecting haunts — all while recognizing the importance of spending quality time with yourself, wrapped up in your thoughts and surrounded by a collection of unfamiliar faces. If you ever find yourself jaded and wanting to leave, just remember why you started in the first place, and pick up a copy of Botton’s Never Can Say Goodbye.
