This is one of those surprises. I discovered this novel by accident, just drawn by the title, and for me, it was darn near perfect. A beautiful novel of a second chance love affair told by Mike, in brief vignettes, about the love of his life, June. It’s also a love letter to NYC, to music, to the weather. The dialogue is fantastic, the writing is gorgeous, music fills its pages, and friendships, and small talk and food are celebrated. I just could not have loved it more.

A wonderful ode to New York. This novel is so atmospheric and buzzing with the energy of the city. It’s beautifully written and a realistic portrait of love and life in the city.

Look. I started this book last night around 1 a.m. after Saturday Night Live and stayed up until around 4 reading it. Then I picked it up again this morning and finished it around 5 this evening.

It's...New York. It's the older man in the jean jacket sitting next to me at the bar on a Friday night. It's the guy running the sound board at the Mercury Lounge. It's the lady who is always checking the guest list at the Bowery Ballroom. It's a NEW YORK [all caps] book. It's CBGBs, it's Mars Bar, it's Trash and Vaudeville Jimmy standing there in those leather pants.

The writing style is original and I loved it. It was exactly like talking to a New Yorker. The conversations about food, the food prep, the cost, the prep of the food, the location to get the better price of said food. The naked men in the YMCA.

It's not going to be a book for everyone. New York is not for everyone. And that's fine. It chews people up and spits them out. Only the strong survive - and this book is no different. It's for real ones.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review to my blog. The format/style in which this was written was like nails on a chalkboard to me and so frustrating. It did not work for me. Thank you for the opportunity

This is truly a slice-of-life New York City book. Written in vignettes, the main characters are the relationship between Mike and June (Mike obsessed with June, and the affair they embark upon while she is still married), the relationship between Mike and his music and food loving buddies at the gym, and NYC skyline, streetpeople, and its lights and shadows.

Told conversationally and jumping between the main plot lines is effective. The reader does not lose the writer's train of thought, as so often happens with concurrent story lines. His descriptions of the early morning, afternoon, sunset, and nights of New York, as well as the traffic, the garbage, and random people are vivid.

Thanks to Soft Skull/Catapult and NetGalley for the eARC.

This book is a big bore. A very superficial and run of the mill story about a man who runs into his ex-girlfriend in New York City. That's pretty much it. Nothing else happens. I was hoping this book would have a sentimental feel, but it was basically like watching paint to dry. I so wanted to like this.

I love novels in and around New York City. This story about a man who runs into an old girlfriend years later and they come together again didn’t really do it for me, however.

She said “I’d like to get even closer to you, but I can’t.” “I know. If it were up to me, we’d sift together like sand, until we were inseparable.”

This is the story of Mike who runs into his old flame, June, years later in New York and they get together. The story is written in a very disjointed manner, that, for me, was hard to follow and consume. It's bits and pieces of their life as they navigate this relationship and New York City and try to figure out aspects of their lives and who they are to each other.

To Tere: “I call her at work it’s like I’m talking to a different person. It’s whiplash, from how she is on the weekend to how she is Monday, which is all business. On the weekend, I’m reassured by her tone, if not by what she says. During the week, I’m out here on my own again.”

There were many sentiments, observations, thoughts I loved in the book. Little sentences here and there that were so profound, so human, so true.

She’d turned me inside out. Or I’d done it for her. I felt as though my heart was on the outside, beating. There was never enough of her. I could never get close enough, never possess her completely enough.

In the end, while I enjoyed this story, it didn't come together for me in the way in which I would have hoped. The bits and pieces style kept the characters at a distance so I never felt immersed in the story.

with gratitude to netgalley and Soft Skull Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn’t get through this book. The writing style is too obscure for me to follow. Not enough detail and then too much at other times. I felt like I didn’t have a clear picture of any of the characters to grasp onto.

This was my first book to read by this author and I can't wait to read more! The characters are amazing and the story flows so well. Really cannot recommend this one enough!!

Jacket Weather reads like an elegiac memoir, a love affair between Mike and June, two soul mates in their 50's, but also between the two of them and the City. Beautifully written, it covers Mike's life in the areas that mean the most to him -- his reunion with the woman he'd known 30 years previously, trips to his original hometown of Cleveland, and his friendships in the YMCA, locker room chat that covers what they made for dinner last night and will make tonight, pasta in all its glory and preparations, and some truly hilariously means of dealing with "gravy." The New York City weather plays a huge role, usually involving storms and "lemon-grey" skies. Also loved the views seen from the window of his Williamsburg apartment with his view of the lights changing on the Empire State Building and the loss of view of Chrysler Building thanks to another black glass tower that seems to erase the structure (my personal favorite) from view. There were many favorite lines, but I'll limit it to: "It's one of these New York conversations you can't tell if she's bored or fascinated. It's a little of both. Bored fascination." But then the line "Humid air blowing up the subway stairs smells like the pachyderm house at the zoo" makes me want to book a flight to JFK now that the City is opening up once again.

Not my normal type of book, and I am so glad I have it a chance. I liked how it was "told in fragments of narrative, reveries, recipes, bits of conversation and snatches of weather, the book collapses a decade in Mike and June’s life and shifts a reader to a glowing nostalgia for the present."