A review by ameliafr
Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park

dark funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 I’m so impressed by the way this book depicts the complexity of relationships. The narrator’s relationships with his college best friend, his mother, and his boyfriends are vivid and nuanced; each feels honest and true to life and it is only now, writing this review, that I realize how well this book’s title applies to each of them.  
 
Despite its title and its depiction of multiple romantic relationships, “Love in The Big City” is not a romantic book. Instead of mood lighting, it shines a bright, unsparing beam on each of its characters, illuminating their contradictions, virtues, and flaws. The narrator navigates his relationships with both a tendency towards “excessive” self-awareness, yet he is repeatedly thwarted by unanticipated self-destruction.
This self-destructive impulse causes only a few of the novel’s tragedies. The rest are mundane, painful and painfully familiar. These moments of heartbreak - growing apart from a friend, saying something and regretting it, not saying and regretting it - are at once trivial and devastating.
 
 
At times, “Love in The Big City” is very funny, but this humor is always dark, with a bitter aftertaste. Despite this, “Love in The Big City” is neither hopeless nor depressing. The narrator introspects and improves. His thoughtfulness and wit carry both him and the reader through moments of joy, loneliness, grief, hope, and love. Originally, I planned to give this book 4.5 stars, but while writing its review I’ve realized how many of its scenes continue to replay in my mind.  For lack of a better word, “Love in The Big City” is so deeply human. This is inherently dissatisfying. It’s also inherently validating, profound, and moving. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings