By Elizabeth Gosney
Dave compares girls to baseball teams; he ranks them according to quality and interest. Dave is eager to get married; he makes his intentions known within the first few weeks of acquaintance. Dave is a returned LDS missionary who gives readers his perspective on the dating game in a new young adult novel, 'As Always, Dave' by Jack Weyland.
In the book, Dave Beckstrom returns from his mission to find his high school sweetheart, Abbie, living in New York and dating someone else. In an attempt to win her back, Dave flies to New York and takes a job at a hardware store for the summer. Abbie has changed from a girl who loved Dave to one who relishes mocking him, exploiting his flaws and using him as a fallback when other boys don''t work out. As strange as her behavior is, Dave acts just as badly. Unable to forget Abbie but refusing to be left out of the dating scene, Dave dates two other girls, kisses one of them and calls his parents about the other telling them she''s 'the one.'
At the end of the summer, Dave is more alone than when he moved to New York and quickly sinking into self-pity, selfishness and despair.
Jack Weyland, the author of 'As Always, Dave,' also wrote the popular novel 'Charly' and dozens of others. Nearly everyone in the Mormon community knows 'Charly' starts out happy and ends with a box of tissues. 'As Always, Dave' starts out badly and ends with a smile. Weyland seems to know readers need a little of both.
'As Always, Dave' is an interesting and easy read. Readers turn the page in order to see if Dave ever comes out of the hole he''s dug and succeeds at the dating game. In the end, readers are satisfied that risking paper cuts from 316 pages was worth it.
However, there are attributes of the book to suggest its purpose was not for literary gain but rather to be immediately turned into a chick flick screenplay. The characters are eccentric in word and action - unprovoked, cutting dialogue between friends, misplaced kisses, attempted elopement. The story is set in New York City - the classic city to romanticize anything from dating to hotdogs. And plenty of opportunities for Mormon celebrity cameos - like those in 'The RM' and 'The Singles Ward' - with only a couple lines so as to not expose their lack of theatrical skill (hardware store customers, bishop, family members).
Despite some arguable faults, 'As Always, Dave' is a nice escape in its illustrations of the extreme emotions of LDS dating. From ecstasy to broken-heartedness, it pulls the reader through a myriad of feelings and ends by giving the reader instant gratification for the typically un-gratifying game of dating.
Elizabeth Gosney is a sophomore from Fruita, Colo., majoring in print journalism.