The City of Your Final Destination

City of Your Final Destination by Peter Cameron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A story about leaving home to find yourself and change the direction of your life. TCOYFD has plenty of mystery, believable characters, and intricate relationship dynamics.

First thoughts: The actual reading of this book was enjoyable - so many poetic turns and characters I could root for and understand. It reminds me of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and, in a strange way, the movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona - stories of travel, lives changed by art, love triangles.

Favorite quotes (there are a lot):

"Champagne is never a mistake." -Caroline, p75

"Why does traveling, coming far, excite us? Has it to do with what we leave behind or with what we encounter?" -Caroline, p77

"I will behave like a normal person for as long as I possibly can." -Omar, p79

"The thing is not to let being scared stop you from doing the right thing, or from getting the things you want. That is what makes us cowards." -Adam, p105

"There is a way that people displace their attention to one another onto the landscape that, when done simultaneously, is sometimes an effective and satisfying substitute for communication." -p106

"You must live your life as if you are the hero of a novel. You must always do something interesting, always earn your space on the page. It is very hard to live one's life like that. Novels are so deceitful in that way: they leave so much out. The years of tedium, of happiness perhaps, but tedious happiness. Or tedious unhappiness." -Adam, p179

"And so we sat there, saying nothing, and our chance was lost." -Adam, p244

"I'm twenty-eight years old and I don't know what I want to do. I don't know what I can do. I don't know anything." -Omar, p266-267 (This quote is perhaps the reason why the book resonated so much with me!)

Recommended for: travelers, homebodies, wanderers who may or may not be lost, lovers, fighters, poets, dreamers, and doers.

Final thoughts: Filled with beautiful imagery and phrases, this book was romantic, sad, and sweet. I loved finding out the "final destination" of all the characters.


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