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A review by ap2009
The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down by Andrew McCarthy
4.0
I read a quote once, and I had to look it up again to put it here:
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something- a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things- which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else. A person you have never met, someone even who is long dead, and it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours." Alan Bennett
That is how I felt while reading McCarthy's The Longest Way Home.
I don't know why I picked up this book. Maybe it was the idea of knowing more about the man behind the movies I'd watched and loved as a teenager. Maybe it was having read (and enjoyed) an article he once wrote about "The Magic Road" in Ireland. Maybe it was the day after St. Patrick's day and this book sat on the Irish Culture appreciation rack. I don't know. But I picked up this book and I am so grateful I did.
I connected with him on his journeys, I felt myself nodding my head and thinking "yes, oh yes" when he'd comment on an emotion or feature or just the way the wind felt. It was a strange feeling.
I've never met him, I've never gone to the Amazon or Africa or even Ireland and yet, with his fluid light descriptions, I felt I was there.
I also felt somewhat embarrassed at the personal side of the story (and it is the reason I rarely read memoirs or autobiographies). I felt I was peering through the window of someone's house. Even if he wrote it, to be shared, it was so personal, and sometimes so intimate, it was shocking. But I will also admit to feeling much of the same feelings as he went along. Much of his thoughts on life and the way he lived it leading up until his wedding, sat with me.
I really, really enjoyed this book. His prose flow, they create a picture, an image, a mental film. His descriptions are short but sweet and his travels were exciting and heartrending. Many times, it had me wishing I could hop a plane the next day and see what he'd seen. And after reading, I have added a few new places to my list of places I'd like to travel.
The connection you have with a book and through the book with an author is always different. Sometimes you just enjoy the story. Sometimes you feel as if you're in the story. Sometimes you feel as if the author is speaking directly to you. Rarely, you feel as if you could have written exactly the same thing, felt exactly the same thing. It is a connection that doesn't come often enough and is riveting when it does.
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something- a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things- which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else. A person you have never met, someone even who is long dead, and it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours." Alan Bennett
That is how I felt while reading McCarthy's The Longest Way Home.
I don't know why I picked up this book. Maybe it was the idea of knowing more about the man behind the movies I'd watched and loved as a teenager. Maybe it was having read (and enjoyed) an article he once wrote about "The Magic Road" in Ireland. Maybe it was the day after St. Patrick's day and this book sat on the Irish Culture appreciation rack. I don't know. But I picked up this book and I am so grateful I did.
I connected with him on his journeys, I felt myself nodding my head and thinking "yes, oh yes" when he'd comment on an emotion or feature or just the way the wind felt. It was a strange feeling.
I've never met him, I've never gone to the Amazon or Africa or even Ireland and yet, with his fluid light descriptions, I felt I was there.
I also felt somewhat embarrassed at the personal side of the story (and it is the reason I rarely read memoirs or autobiographies). I felt I was peering through the window of someone's house. Even if he wrote it, to be shared, it was so personal, and sometimes so intimate, it was shocking. But I will also admit to feeling much of the same feelings as he went along. Much of his thoughts on life and the way he lived it leading up until his wedding, sat with me.
I really, really enjoyed this book. His prose flow, they create a picture, an image, a mental film. His descriptions are short but sweet and his travels were exciting and heartrending. Many times, it had me wishing I could hop a plane the next day and see what he'd seen. And after reading, I have added a few new places to my list of places I'd like to travel.
The connection you have with a book and through the book with an author is always different. Sometimes you just enjoy the story. Sometimes you feel as if you're in the story. Sometimes you feel as if the author is speaking directly to you. Rarely, you feel as if you could have written exactly the same thing, felt exactly the same thing. It is a connection that doesn't come often enough and is riveting when it does.