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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
PTSD + Noir = sign me up! Wow, it did not disappoint. Excellent.🖤
challenging
A beautiful, evocative and compulsively readable book. Half poetry, half prose, it revels in the gritty, nostalgic details of post-WWII NewYork, LA and San Francisco, while slowly and surely revealing Walker’s story and his inevitable path.
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Long Take is the novel-in-verse story of Walker, a Canadian veteran of D-Day. He's haunted by what he saw and guilt-ridden for what he did, and feels he isn't worthy of returning home to his love in Nova Scotia. Instead, he seeks peace, redemption, and himself in American big cities, particularly Los Angeles, but also New York and San Francisco. He finds work as a journalist and spends a lot of time focussing on homelessness. Four things really stood out for me.
1. Walker's PTSD was so well depicted. The graphic content of his flashbacks clearly conveys what he experienced, what he continues to carry with him, and what haunts him. The way they unexpectedly interrupt the main narrative flow closely resembles the way they randomly interrupt his everyday thoughts and activities.
2. The sense of place was so strong. Los Angeles of the late 1940s/early 1950s jumped of the page - the push for progress and perfection, the homelessness, the gangs, the seeming lack of care and concern for the welfare of war veterans, the way neighbourhoods were destroyed for the construction of freeways. The inclusion of maps and photos added a bit of extra realism to buttress Robertson's words. Having real people and events mentioned added to the authenticity and firmly rooted the novel in time as well as place.
3. The noirish vibes were top-notch - atmospheric, moody, and dark. The cameo appearances by film directions whom Walker meets and references to noir films of the time add an element of fun for film buffs.
4. The beauty of Robertson's writing really contrasted with the subject matter, which is anything but. Yet, somehow, the writing does not diminish the darkness of the themes nor the gravity they deserve.
I picked up The Long Take because novels in verse and novels by poets worked well for me, and I'm pleased to report that this didn't break the streak. It's an emotionally tough read that's effectively done, and I'm really glad to have read it.
1. Walker's PTSD was so well depicted. The graphic content of his flashbacks clearly conveys what he experienced, what he continues to carry with him, and what haunts him. The way they unexpectedly interrupt the main narrative flow closely resembles the way they randomly interrupt his everyday thoughts and activities.
2. The sense of place was so strong. Los Angeles of the late 1940s/early 1950s jumped of the page - the push for progress and perfection, the homelessness, the gangs, the seeming lack of care and concern for the welfare of war veterans, the way neighbourhoods were destroyed for the construction of freeways. The inclusion of maps and photos added a bit of extra realism to buttress Robertson's words. Having real people and events mentioned added to the authenticity and firmly rooted the novel in time as well as place.
3. The noirish vibes were top-notch - atmospheric, moody, and dark. The cameo appearances by film directions whom Walker meets and references to noir films of the time add an element of fun for film buffs.
4. The beauty of Robertson's writing really contrasted with the subject matter, which is anything but. Yet, somehow, the writing does not diminish the darkness of the themes nor the gravity they deserve.
I picked up The Long Take because novels in verse and novels by poets worked well for me, and I'm pleased to report that this didn't break the streak. It's an emotionally tough read that's effectively done, and I'm really glad to have read it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Racism, Violence, War
The Long Take's portrayal of PTSD seems to me to be deadly accurate. I wouldn't exactly know exactly since I haven't had first-hand experience of it or know anyone how does. I read somewhere that PTSD is the inability to remember without reliving. This book captures that sensation with great precision. Walker, the protagonist, lives such a life, drifting through it, sleepless, reliving the experiences of the war and the ones that lead up to it. And it is his intention to kill his past, but this impulse only amplifies the past's effect on him. Walker roams restlessly through cities, trying to find a place where he can stay, but the entire world seems alien to him. The alienation coming from the world's disregard as to what happened in the war and the soldiers in it. He seeks out people who have had similar experiences as him, to talk about the war in general. But when it comes right down to him, his POV of story, the past becomes weighty, it can't be told and he alienates himself from them too, although he gets back to them now and then through a span of years.
The writer's ability to describe the city of cinema in a decade, the change it goes through, the very mild insinuation that McCarthyism is one the path of becoming the new fascism, the historical events that seared into the memories of everyone of that time is one point. Better of all is the dialogue of noir- which has the danger of being exaggerated or sounding unreal- which again is precise.
Plotwise, there is nothing that is going on which is exhilarating. In case, the reader lived in the time this book is set in, then it can act as a nice dose of nostalgia. The reader is compelled to read on to know the war experiences of Walker and the others and how it affects his present. In the end, when the city is completely torn down, Walker finally feels at home, he chooses the city, perhaps because it is reminiscent of the rumble of the war he lived through.
The writer's ability to describe the city of cinema in a decade, the change it goes through, the very mild insinuation that McCarthyism is one the path of becoming the new fascism, the historical events that seared into the memories of everyone of that time is one point. Better of all is the dialogue of noir- which has the danger of being exaggerated or sounding unreal- which again is precise.
Plotwise, there is nothing that is going on which is exhilarating. In case, the reader lived in the time this book is set in, then it can act as a nice dose of nostalgia. The reader is compelled to read on to know the war experiences of Walker and the others and how it affects his present. In the end, when the city is completely torn down, Walker finally feels at home, he chooses the city, perhaps because it is reminiscent of the rumble of the war he lived through.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes