Books about romantics in big cities

[ShoutGrace]

I have a desire to read about individual romantic relationships taking place in big cities.

I struggle to describe it, but the idea I have comes through a little bit in the following song lyrics:

"In each other's shadows we grew less and less tall
and eventually our theories couldn't explain it at all
and I'm recording our history now on the bedroom wall
and when we leave the landlord will come
and paint over it all . . ."

Those last three lines trigger the feeling behind the kind of books I want to read.

Stories about being romantically involved in hopeless relationships, lost in a large complex arena like New York, for example.

Anthologies, or short stories, or full length novels.

[dfloyd]

Sex and the City, plus the movie.

[stlukesguild]

Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater contains an absolutely heartbreaking relationship between the author/narrator and Anne in the great metropolis of London.

[kelby_lake]

I have a desire to read about individual romantic relationships taking place in big cities.

I struggle to describe it, but the idea I have comes through a little bit in the following song lyrics:

"In each other's shadows we grew less and less tall
and eventually our theories couldn't explain it at all
and I'm recording our history now on the bedroom wall
and when we leave the landlord will come
and paint over it all . . ."

Those last three lines trigger the feeling behind the kind of books I want to read.

Stories about being romantically involved in hopeless relationships, lost in a large complex arena like New York, for example.

Anthologies, or short stories, or full length novels.


Lost in Translation, sort of. Though it's a film.

The Sun Also Rises?

[mal4mac]

"Return of the Native" by Thomas Hardy. OK it's not set in a large city, but the 'returning native' has been to Paris, and has earned to dislike that milieu. His hopeless love object wants to get away from 'country life' to Paris. Not a good match you might imagine ... and you'd be right ... heart rending stuff. Come to think of it, something like Madame Bovary ... or Sweet Home Alabama (though that's too sweet, Hollywood after all...)

[Scheherazade]

Breakfast at Tiffany's - I love Capote's style.

Brigitte Jones' Diary - All right, don't laugh it off! It is funny, cleverly written and about a girl's love life while she tries to make it in London.

Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie - It's about couple of Americans finding love in London.


You know, Shout, you got me thinking... Are there any "love stories" written anymore?

[ShoutGrace]

Thanks for all the responses. I will certainly look for the Thomas de Quincey and the Alison Lurie novels. I have Return of the Native, so I'll get started on that tonight.

Scher, I wonder whether there are any good love stories being written anymore. I'm sure there must be, but I wonder if the market is so diminished in our times that they have a hard time finding purchase. Bodice rippers are surely plentiful, and crime novels are everywhere . . . I guess I can't tell because I'm not used to looking for romances. :)

I guess "big city" isn't necessarily integral to my thinking, it just seemed to go hand in hand, perhaps because that kind of life has implications and forces impositions on modern people. Simply the idea of lovers who are trying to make it and finding it hard, and then impossible.

Perhaps their society has left them ill equipped to deal with the emotional and psychological depths of their relationships. Or it just comes down to the fact that they can't get over whatever it is that is defeating them and despite their efforts their love is bound to perish.

I guess I don't know exactly!

[Scheherazade]

Scher, I wonder whether there are any good love stories being written anymore. I'm sure there must be, but I wonder if the market is so diminished in our times that they have a hard time finding purchase. Bodice rippers are surely plentiful, and crime novels are everywhere . . . I guess I can't tell because I'm not used to looking for romances. :)I wonder the same thing, too:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55396