London Is the Best City in America

This book is sweet and funny and a little bit heartbreaking. It's the kind of book that makes you remember. If you liked Dive From Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer, or Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank, I think you'll really enjoy this little ruby of first novel. Treat yourself to a tall gin and tonic and this book, on a hammock.

London is the kind of book you read because the author is just that good. At its most basic form, the storyline is not terribly innovative, overall - girl is in love with boy, girl leaves boy behind, girl is faced to revisit and analyze her decision some years later in order to grow beyond where and what she is. An earlier customer review stated "the book's message seems to be: you've got to make choices, and they must be realistic...what a surprise." The unexpected part of all this, though, is that the author has taken a template of so many relationships, so many lives, and crafted a way to tell you a story that you very well may already know - and yet don't want to miss a word. She talks to you, in a friend's voice, inviting you to participate in the journeys of these characters to which she has gifted life. Put simply, you will *feel* when you read this. It's the kind of stuff that makes you smile and smirk and cry - sometimes really cry - and close your eyes after passages. The type of prose that you want to re-read out loud to someone else, sort of like sharing song lyrics that resonate. The type that's both personal and communal. Soon after I started, I found that I could only comfortably read it at home because I couldn't be honest enough anywhere else to really experience it the way that I unconsciously, unwillingly, inevitably did, every time. Ms. Dave's art puts the reader in a place of self-reflection - striking a most impressive balance of suspending one's own reality while simultaneously discovering it. She has the ability to accurately detail the unspoken, unchartered territory of one's heart and give the reader an experience that is unexpected but hoped for all the while. I'm very pleased that a movie will be made from it, for the sole reason that both book and author will continue to receive well-deserved recognition. I also know, however, that a film will never manage to convey the details so beautifully articulated here, and that no matter how good the actor, there will be many emotions you'll feel when you read that are much more powerful than those you'll see. This book, this author, does that. It is, wholly, a gorgeous debut.

My girlfriend passed me this book after she stayed up into the morning reading it. It appeared to be targeted at women, but I loved it and raced thru it almost as quickly as my girlfriend had. This author is fully committed to her voice in a way that I haven't read in a while. Reading her is a kind of cozy, old-times feeling like hanging out with your high school best friend many years later. The story is actually more about the narrator's brother than the narrator herself -- a welcome surprise for this male reader. But a welcome surprise also because this isn't some kind of story about a woman so self-involved that she can't see the world around her. Emmy, the narrator, adores her brother and, only through her very genuine but complicated love of her brother, does she begin to see her own issues. Also, the writing is incredibly funny. Highly recommended for men and women.

I received my copy on Saturday and spent the whole weekend reading it- I couldn't put it down. London is the Best City in America is funny and so smart. I really connected to the main character Emmy and didn't want the story to end. I found out about Laura Dave after reading about her in a magazine- I'm so glad I found her and can't wait for her second book!

Dave's book is funny, and real, and sad in the best ways imaginable -- you will feel for this family of characters, appreciate your mom, be reminded of all the hard questions about life and love, and wish, more than anything, for your own happy ending. A+ !!