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Long Time, No See

3.81 of 5 stars 3.81 · rating details · 74 ratings · 31 reviews

Long Time, No See introduces us to the unforgettable world of Mister Psyche .In the isolated coastal townland of Ballintra in the Northwest of Ireland Recent school-leaver, occasional worker, full-time companion and Malibu-provider to Uncle Joe-Joe and his friend, The Blackbird, Psyche is a boy on the cusp of adulthood, undone by a recent traumatic event.Hanging out with m...more

Paperback, 448 pages

Published May 1st 2011 by Faber & Faber (first published January 1st 2011)

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History of a Pleasure Seeker by Richard Mason

Man Booker Prize Eligible 2011

35th out of 154 books — 226 voters

The Faster I Walk, The Smaller I Am by Kjersti A. Skomsvold

Impac Dublin Award 2013 Long List

116th out of 154 books — 34 voters

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Jan 31, 2013 Fionnuala rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sometimes reading is like being a fisherman; we sail out from terra firma with high hopes and we trawl the sea of words in search of a catch that will make the trip worth while. When the catch contains a species we recognise, and one that is associated in our memory with great experiences, then so much the better.
If reading Dermot Healy’s Long Time, No See had been a fishing trip, my net would have been very full and the variety of fish it contained would have been both exotic and comfortingly...more Sometimes reading is like being a fisherman; we sail out from terra firma with high hopes and we trawl the sea of words in search of a catch that will make the trip worth while. When the catch contains a species we recognise, and one that is associated in our memory with great experiences, then so much the better.
If reading Dermot Healy’s Long Time, No See had been a fishing trip, my net would have been very full and the variety of fish it contained would have been both exotic and comfortingly familiar. The following is a selection of quotes which mirror that fishing trip. They have been trawled from the work of the many Irish writers whom I believe to have been the conscious or unconscious inspiration for Healy’s intensely human approach to writing. Together they give a little foretasting of the bizarre and wonderful world of Long Time, No See:

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.

A tavern is a place where madness is sold by the bottle.

It is the timber of poetry that wears most surely, and there is no timber that has not strong roots among the clay and worms.

Poking about again. Poking about as usual. I've eyes in my head. I won't go out again. I won't go down again. I'll stay where I am. I'll stay here, in my bed.

Your talk," I said, "is surely the handiwork of wisdom because not one word of it do I understand.

Once I was looking through the kitchen window at dusk and I saw an old woman looking in. Suddenly the light changed and I realized that the old woman was myself

Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better.

When anyone asks me about the Irish character, I say look at the trees. Maimed, stark and misshapen, but ferociously tenacious.

Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love. But always meeting ourselves.

And there's the half-talk code of mysteries
And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Their hands, swinging, touched lightly now and then; their nearness was as natural as the June day.

Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life.

The past beats inside me like a second heart.

The Bible was a consolation to a fellow alone in the old cell. The lovely thin paper with a bit of matress stuffing in it, if you could get a match, was as good a smoke as I ever tasted.

That's the Irish People all over – they treat a joke as a serious thing and a serious thing as a joke.

The gross and net result of it is that people who spent most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who are nearly half people and half bicycles...when a man lets things go so far that he is more than half a bicycle, you will not see him so much because he spends a lot of his time leaning with one elbow on walls or standing propped by one foot at kerbstones.

There were children and a dog on the white fairgreen and the town band marched again on its fourth lap of the town as if it was condemned to wander for all eternity until all the tunes came right.

The single sandal found among the rocks became a sodden image of death; and as the keening on the pier at Kilauran traditionally marked distress brought by the sea, so did silence at Lahardane.

My father...was a man who understood all dogs thoroughly and treated them like human beings.

It’s only after years that you get some shape on things, and then after all that you have to leave. It’s comical.

I have done my best to set down the character of the people about me so that some record of us might live after us, for the like of us will never be again.

In slow distaste
I fold my towel with what grace I can,
Not young, and not renewable, but man.

PS: The above quotes are from William Butler Yeats, Jonathan Swift, John Millington Synge, Aidan O'Higgins, Flann O'Brien, Molly Keane, Samuel Beckett, Edna O'Brien, James Joyce, Patrick Kavanagh, Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Bowen, George Bernard Shaw, John Banville, Brendan Behan, Sean O'Casey, Flann O'Brien, Patrick McCabe, William Trevor, Flann O'Brien, John McGahern, Tomàs O'Criomhthàin, Thomas Kinsella.(less)

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Feb 15, 2012 A. Mary Murphy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: irish-novels

I love this book. I love the people. I love the way they treat each other. The way they love each other. Healy treats his characters so gently, takes such care with them, has such a delicate touch. There are no throwaway characters, no unnecessary incidents, no pointless details. This is the story of a community, the story of a season or two, of lives that are completely intertwined, with some magic and loss and hilarity. I love everything about it. It's a book I'll read again.

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Nov 04, 2012 Leanne Kinkopf rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

It's been a while since I tried reading this (Only just figured out how to make an exclusive "stopped reading" shelf) so forgive me if I'm not entirely articulate. I would like to start by saying the book is written so so beautifully. I really wish I enjoyed it more, because the author writes so perfectly. That being said, I had issues with the characters. I felt like the things I cared about (the main character's back story/friendship with dead friend/work) weren't explored enough. The main sto

...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Stacy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

I received this ARC free from Goodreads First Reads.

Long Time, No See is the literary equivalent of viewing a butterfly wing under a microscope and seeing how each of the individual scales has a beauty of its own, while still appreciating the exquisiteness of the whole. In this case, we have an examination of the minutiae of the daily life of an Irish teen in a close-knit, small community. While each day just seems to be one more of the same 'ol, same 'ol--working odd jobs around town, checking...more I received this ARC free from Goodreads First Reads.

Long Time, No See is the literary equivalent of viewing a butterfly wing under a microscope and seeing how each of the individual scales has a beauty of its own, while still appreciating the exquisiteness of the whole. In this case, we have an examination of the minutiae of the daily life of an Irish teen in a close-knit, small community. While each day just seems to be one more of the same 'ol, same 'ol--working odd jobs around town, checking in with his neighboring great-uncle, chats with the girlfriend and parents--they really build a compelling portrait of family, friendship, love, and grief.

Philip Feeney, aka Mister Psyche, is on the cusp between secondary school and college. He's in a bit of a daze, due to the death of a close friend right at the end of the school year, and you can see that he's pretty much going from day to day rather than making big plans for the future. He's very close to his great-uncle Joejoe and Joejoe's friend the Blackbird, visiting with them daily and doing household chores and running errands and such as needed. Through his various errands and odd jobs, we also get introduced to the colorful neighbors that make up his community. As the summer progresses, Philip is forced to deal with the inevitability of the aging process, primarily that of Joejoe's, but to some extent his own as well. You can't say that a whole lot really happens in the book, but there is a surprising beauty and emotional depth expressed in just taking each day as it comes. Though they all have mobile phones, the cross-generational closeness between characters and the simplicity of their daily activities evokes a sense of the past.

As an American, I found this book to be be an interesting insight to the Irish mind and lifestyle. The word "funny" is used multiple times on the back cover, and while I could recognize the humor in many of the situations, I typically found myself more bemused than amused at the daily goings on in the Feeney households. Just the matter-of-fact description of what they did for entertainment on a Saturday night I found both astounding and yet intriguing in its simplicity. The stream of consciousness style was at times disconcerting, especially in the lack of quotation marks, and since I'm not familiar with the culture I think it made me work a little harder to be sure I kept up with everything going on, but it was certainly effective at establishing a mood and a sense of connection to how Philip's feeling. The ending was expected, but I found myself surprised at how emotionally affected I was by it.(less)

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Mar 21, 2011 Andrew rated it 3 of 5 stars

Have you ever read a book all the way through and felt that you missed something really big? You get that unsettling feeling that perhaps the whole thing is one big allegory that you failed to get. Or maybe you were daydreaming through the crucial paragraph that knits the whole book together.

That's the feeling I had after reading Long Time, No See. The quality of the writing was excellent throughout, and Dermot Healy spent 11 years writing this book, so I'm sure he had something important to say...more Have you ever read a book all the way through and felt that you missed something really big? You get that unsettling feeling that perhaps the whole thing is one big allegory that you failed to get. Or maybe you were daydreaming through the crucial paragraph that knits the whole book together.

That's the feeling I had after reading Long Time, No See. The quality of the writing was excellent throughout, and Dermot Healy spent 11 years writing this book, so I'm sure he had something important to say. But I just don't know what it was. I enjoyed the lively writing, the well-drawn characters, the intriguing situations, but in the end it didn't seem to lead to anything much. The characters didn't seem to develop in any meaningful way, and the various mysteries in the plot were either left unresolved or were resolved in a way that felt like an anticlimax. For example the bullet hole in Joejoe's window was just caused by him firing off his gun. There's a lot of buildup and suspicion and then it was just an old man firing off his gun by mistake.

Again, maybe I'm missing something, but it felt as if the whole book was like that - plot points were developed just to the point where they had the potential to be interesting, and then were dropped. Mister Psyche grapples with the recent death of his friend in a car crash - or at least you expect him to, but he doesn't really do much grappling. He's just sad sometimes, and then he builds a wall. Perhaps the wall is symbolic, or perhaps it isn't. Mister Psyche has an odd relationship with his girlfriend Anna, with hardly any emotion or affection and not much contact except by mobile phone. Again, we don't find out why this is, and nothing much changes about it.

Perhaps Healy is trying to say that that's how life really is, that it's not that interesting or dramatic, that there is no neat or satisfying resolution, that events don't have a point in the end. If so, he's probably right about that, but it doesn't make for a very engaging read. Or perhaps the characters and plot are developing in interesting ways, but it's all so understated that I missed it. I don't generally need, or want, to have everything spelled out for me, and nor do I need a nice neat resolution, but I like to have something happen and for it to a bit plainer than it was here.

My overall feeling about this book was that it was a beautifully written and intriguing (and very long!) setup for a great novel, but the story didn't develop as I'd hoped it would. (less)

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Aug 19, 2011 Mae rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ireland

The Irish and the Irish way of life. Funny, sad, clever and wise. This is a side of Ireland that perhaps the Irish know well, but as a visitor it is perhaps a privilege to enter this world. The story starts with the coming and goings of a young lad, Psyche. We move into his home, with his parents. For the next 400 pages we will visits his granduncle and many of the villages Characters. The love demonstrated amongst this family and this community if frankly heartwarming.
As I read this book, I kep...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: won-on-goodreads

I just won this book on GoodReads. It was listed as a "Galley Giveaway" by Viking! I look forward to reading "Long Time, No See" by Dermot Healy and sharing my thoughts.

I am thrilled to be part of the GoodReads community which has gives me the opportunity to find out about and to read books I might not otherwise encounter. Thanks Again!

Debated on giving this book a three or a four....Lovely writing and I really did end up liking it, but about a quarter of the way through I was ready to put it do...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Deborah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned, first-reads-shelf

I am so sorry that I evidently couldn't "get" the "charm" or "message" of this book. Most reviewers seemed to be enchanted with it, believing each character was well fleshed out, treated gently and with grace in the prose,but I had to abandon it early on before I went stark raving mad.I am well acquainted with Irish literature and humor and love most all of it that I read. I found this novel hard to follow and could not muster up interest in the characters or their lives.I couldn't follow who wa...more

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May 23, 2011 Gina added it

A very lovely read. The kind of book that develops a world and people you enjoy being with. The prose is beautifully and skillfully written. The setting is ethereal in ways. But I felt that the synopsis was misleading. I was waiting around for more most of the time. Will Mister Psyche have a breakdown or pivotal moment? Who shot the hole in Joejoe's window after all? I suspect that the whole book is just about life and how we just push through it the best we can and sometimes we don't get any an...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own

I received this as a Goodreads Giveaway. It was an "advanced proof" so I'm not sure what changes were made in the final edition. This was an entertaining story of a small seaside town in Ireland. It's a leisurely-paced novel whose characters grew on me as I moved through the stories of their daily lives. I enjoyed the book, but did not LOVE it. Two difficulties I had were the conversations without quotation marks. I got used to it, but at times was confusing. Also, being American, I was unfamili...more

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Apr 03, 2011 Ann-marie Dolan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Discovering a book that, upon its reading, makes you feel like you've come home is a rarity and yet this is exactly how I felt about Long Time, No See. Our narrator has just finished school and is spending the summer taking care of his grand-uncle, Joe-Joe, and Joe-Joe's best friend, The Blackbird. What should be an easy task is complicated by strange nocturnal occurrences and also by the men's endearing stubbornness. Healy takes mundane events and imbues them with a mystical quality. Not only t...more

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Oct 11, 2012 Jenny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't think that I would like this book when I started it. Odd punctuation, no quotation marks. The characters had multiple odd nicknames. I carried on reading it because my young daughter had chosen it for me as a gift, and I didn't want to disappoint her. After a few chapters, it started growing on me. I became so captivated by this book. I felt like I knew how the characters looked, sounded and smelled. I have finished the book and I miss them. One of the cover blurbs describes it best: 'A...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Reading Fool rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: giveaways, 2013

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

The story, set in a coastal town in Ireland, revolves around the everyday life of a cast of characters. The protagonist is Philip Feeney, aka Mr. Psyche, a young man who survived a car accident that killed his friend. He spends most of time with his granduncle Joejoe and his friend Blackbird, both of whom are much older than Philip. There are many adventures that involve many people, some from the town and some who are just traveling through...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

I wish I could write about daily life this beautifully! A young Irish man goes about his business and interacts with friends and family. He comes at the descriptions sideways, but the images all come through very clearly.

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Sep 10, 2012 Mitch Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting read that captures a bit of the eccentricities that one finds in the West of Ireland. Healy treats the characters particularly the older ones with loving tenderness and it is easy to find oneself been absorbed into this quaint world.

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May 23, 2013 Johanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, reviewed

The thing that strikes you from the very beginning of this book is the author's bold and definitely unique style which, though I have to admit was a bit of a challenge for me to read at first, I was able to acclimate to quickly, and ultimately came to enjoy.

Healy writes with a frankness that is not very common in novels, using abrupt dialogues and plain and simple words that make the story real -and not only real but natural, which is quite a challenge for writers to actually accomplish. Add to...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Susan marked it as to-read

Recommended by EW - June 15, 2012. "Healy, the acclaimed Irish writer, has delivered his first novel in more than 10 years, a family saga bristling with curiously appealing oddballs and misfits."

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Oct 08, 2012 Niall O'neill added it

Shelves: couldnt-finish

Couldn't get past the first 30 pages. Not feeling it at all, and don't get enough time to read to give this any more of a chance.

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Jul 31, 2012 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads, fiction

I received this book as part of the First Reads program. This is one of those books that more captures a time and place than a plot driven narrative. In that way it reminded me a bit of Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. The place, near as I can tell because it isn't explicitly stated, is coastal Ireland; the time is current, though it felt old fashioned, in fact with the removal of a few references to cell phones and the like, it's almost timeless. And the story, as such, is one of family and frienship...more

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Dec 15, 2012 Clare rated it 5 of 5 stars

Simply lovely. And funny! So Irish. So good. Read it.

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Sep 28, 2012 Bonnie Rietveld rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love EVERYTHING about this book even the lack of plot.

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Sep 09, 2012 Hazel rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

i had a hard time following the dialogue in this book especially at the start - didn't know who was talking. It wasn't like what i expected but towards the end it turned out to be not too bad. I couldn't wait to finish it though - just so i can move on to another book.

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Oct 12, 2012 Andrewhouston rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think I loved this book! I say I think because the characters are so charming almost to the point of being hokey. The writing and dialogue have a beautiful rhythm to it that is poetic but it never seems to be trying to impress you. The whole thing is so simple and plain and at the same time very strange. There is much that is left unsaid and mysterious and I am impressed that although you keep reading wanting certain mysteries to be revealed, they never are.

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Dec 29, 2011 Juliana Jura rated it 1 of 5 stars

Didn't finish this book. It didn't 'pull' me into the plot immediately. Hopefully I'll re-visit this book again one day and try once more.

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Jul 17, 2012 Megan Abbatelli rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads-books-i-ve-won

Nicely written and an easy read. I loved the setting and charicter development. I'm shocked this book hasn't gotten better praise. I have given it off to a fellow bookworm and she is excited to start reading it.

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Feb 03, 2013 Michelle rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is written in more of a prose style and I gave up 50 pages into it. I struggled every page with who was talking, following the plot, and having to reread entire paragraphs. This was just not the book for me but maybe other readers may enjoy it more. Thanks for Goodreads for my free copy.

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Aug 10, 2012 Arielle is currently reading it · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

I feel extremely lucky to be able to win this book! Cannot wait to read it and write my review on it

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Nov 27, 2012 Seán Treacy rated it 4 of 5 stars

It takes a couple of chapters to get used to the almost complete absence of a plot, but if the style takes you, it's a joy to experience. It has a resonance with McGahern's That They May Face the Rising Sun in that particular way.

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Sep 13, 2012 Nessa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this book is a joy to read--i received this book as a give away through goodread- it took me a bit to start it--but once i did the folks in the story became "family" it is a delightful book! thanks goodreads

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Jul 25, 2012 Kim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was a difficult read for me... Had to force myself to stick with it.

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About Dermot Healy

Dermot Healy (born 1947 in Finnea, County Westmeath, Ireland) is an Irish novelist, playwright, and poet. He has won the Hennessy Award (1974 and 1976), the Tom Gallon Award (1983), and the Encore Award (1995). In 2011, he was shortlisted for the Poetry Now Award for his poetry collection, A Fool's Errand.

Healy is a member of Aosdána and of its governing body, the Toscaireacht, and lives in County...more

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Quotes from Long Time, No See

“Jesus. I had a dream last night too.
You had.
I dreamt that my Grandma had just died yesterday.
Dear God.
And she had died long before I was born.
He looked at me with astounded eyes, and felt his neck, and then he patted my knee. Aisy son, he said.
Why did I dream her?
Because you never met her. The dead you never met die a little bit every day in your head.” — 4 people liked it

“...and he suddenly opened his eyes and stared straight ahead into an empty space till slowly we returned into view. I can make small talk, he said slowly, I can do that but out of the corner of my eye I can see the dark approaching.” — 3 people liked it

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