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The Shortest Way Home

by Juliette Fay (Goodreads Author)

3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 · rating details · 589 ratings · 130 reviews

A NOVEL FULL OF HUMOR AND HOPE FOR FINDING YOURSELF WHERE YOU LEAST EXPECTED

Sean has spent twenty years in Third World war zones and natural disaster areas, fully embracing what he’d always felt was his life’s mission. But when burnout sets in, Sean is reluctantly drawn home to Belham, Massachusetts, the setting of Fay’s much-loved Shelter Me. There, he discovers that his...more

Paperback, 416 pages

Published October 30th 2012 by Penguin Books (first published October 1st 2012)

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Oct 24, 2012 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary, arcs-read, read-in-2012, arc-via-publisher-or-author

A review copy of The Shortest Way Home was kindly provided to me by FSB Associates for Penguin Books.
Expected publication: October 30th 2012 by Penguin Books

Visit my blog for a chance to win a copy of this book!

'From the time he was fifteen Sean had known he would head out and do as much good as he could in the time that was left, while he waited for his mother's diagnosis to become his own.'

Sean has known since an early age that he had a 50% chance he would develop the same disease that took hi...more A review copy of The Shortest Way Home was kindly provided to me by FSB Associates for Penguin Books.
Expected publication: October 30th 2012 by Penguin Books

Visit my blog for a chance to win a copy of this book!

'From the time he was fifteen Sean had known he would head out and do as much good as he could in the time that was left, while he waited for his mother's diagnosis to become his own.'

Sean has known since an early age that he had a 50% chance he would develop the same disease that took his mother: Huntington's disease. Not wanting to waste the life he had left he devoted his life to being selfless and helping others as a nurse in various foreign lands. Deciding that he needs a break because he's getting burnt out from working so hard, he finally realizes that he's old enough that he may have actually dodged a bullet and he doesn't in fact have Huntington's disease. He beat the odds. But this comes with the realization that he molded his life around the fact that he may very well not have many years to live and he begins to wonder just how different his life could have been if he had made different choices, if he had actually gotten tested and known for sure if he had the disease or not.

Sean returns home to visit his Aunt Vivian, sister Deidre, and his late brother Hugh's son Kevin. He's shocked to find that his Aunt Vivvy appears to have alzheimer's or early signs of dementia, Deidre is completely absorbed in making it big as an actor and is never home, and that eleven year old Kevin appears to be raising himself. Kevin is an extremely self-sufficient child and isn't neglected; however, he finds his behavior to be strange until a friend mentions he exhibits signs of having a sensory processing disorder. Reluctant to alter his roaming lifestyle despite the obvious need for his presence to be closer to home, Sean still fully intends on leaving again once he's been able to get everything straightened out.

There was a lot of detail given regarding Huntington's disease and sensory processing disorders. Both diseases/disorders I knew very little about to begin with but it was extremely interesting to learn more about. It wasn't overdone and didn't venture off into medical jargon that didn't make much sense, it was well explained and quite informative.

This is a hard book to put a label on. There were a few religious angles but they weren't so abundant that I would label it a 'Christian Fiction' because there were also a couple sex scenes. The bits of romance that were thrown in weren't overdone and was nicely intertwined with the story but not so much I would label it a 'Romance' either. Definitely one for Adult Contemporary fans with a 'deeper' message. I found all of the characters to be quite charming which was a real treat. Once I passed the halfway point I was so absorbed into the story I couldn't put it down. I suppose it could be said it was a predictable ending but I still raced to finish. Overall this was a surprisingly funny and lighthearted read despite the serious subject matter, I found myself laughing often.

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Sep 05, 2012 Edna Black rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm waiting to read this. I LOVE Juliette Fay's books and have read them all. Edna

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Nov 10, 2012 Susan (The Book Bag) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

I had already read one of Juliette's books, Deep Down True. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have her books on my 'must be read' list. When this one came along to review, I just had to read it.

I loved this story for a lot of reasons but there was one in particular that I kept thinking about the whole time I was reading it ~ the main character in The Shortest Way Home is a male. It seems like it has been quite a while since I have read a book from a male's perspective. It was refreshing.

Sean suffers s...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Tracie rated it 5 of 5 stars

First, though I gave it a 5 star rating, this isn't a perfect book. This is why it earned this rating from me. Wonderfully believable, complex characters. I listened to the book and never once wanted to just be done with it. I thought the reader did a fab job. The story explores many of the ups and downs of life without ever getting preachy about it. Yes, it talks about 3 world countries and the appalling conditions, but never with the hit-you-over-the-head "you evil American with all your stuff...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Kathleen Hagen added it

Shelves: 2012-audio-books

The Shortest Way Home, by Juliette Fay, Narrated by Sean Runnette, Produced by Blackstone Audio, Downloaded from audible.com.

Sean Moran is a nurse who has lived and worked in war-torn disaster areas of the world for the past 20 years. His mother died of Huntington’s Disease, and there’s a 50 percent chance he’ll inherit it. He doesn’t take the test to find out if he has it. Instead, he believes that with the time he has, he should do as much good as possible. But when he reached the age of 43 an...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Miriam Downey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Read my full review here: http://mimi-cyberlibrarian.blogspot.c...

Life is complicated. Life is messy. There is no way to escape either the complications or the messiness, so you might as well just make the best of it. That is the one sentence summation of The Shortest Way Home by Juliette Fay. If you have ever looked around at your life and thought “I gotta get out of here!” then this is the book for you.

Sean is a 40-something nurse who has been traveling from third world country to third world...more Read my full review here: http://mimi-cyberlibrarian.blogspot.c...

Life is complicated. Life is messy. There is no way to escape either the complications or the messiness, so you might as well just make the best of it. That is the one sentence summation of The Shortest Way Home by Juliette Fay. If you have ever looked around at your life and thought “I gotta get out of here!” then this is the book for you.

Sean is a 40-something nurse who has been traveling from third world country to third world country for many years trying to do some good in the world even as he tries to escape his upbringing and the potential of a fatal genetic disease. He arrives home to New England for a short visit at the behest of his younger sister and finds himself caught up in family messiness. As Sean becomes more and more entangled in life back at home, he questions his purpose in life, the reasons for his wanderings, and his ability to change. It is a bit refreshing to have a male protagonist in this kind of family story; he is an interesting character as he tries to make sense of what life has become for his family, a family he has all but abandoned.

The Shortest Way Home has an abundance of characters, all with a lot of complications—all trying to negotiate through life’s messiness. Each character is fully developed with intriguing life circumstances. One reviewer says that the characters are “wonderfully imperfect lovable people.” The two characters I appreciated the most were Kevin, Sean’s orphaned nephew and Da, Sean’s long-lost father who arrives on the scene about half way through the book. Kevin is a pre-teen and has been virtually raising himself. He has sensory issues as well as ADD, but he has found a way to negotiate through life. The reader becomes so proud of him and the progress he makes, but the author doesn’t turn him into an unbelievable hero-like character. He remains a clueless pre-adolescent. Da, on the other hand, reminded me of several people I have known; someone whose life fell apart in his 30s and he has spent the last 30 years trying to put himself together again.

It is impossible to navigate in this brief book review all the topics that are discussed, “topics as varied as family loyalty, genetic destiny, responsibility, the duties of friendship and the strength of faith” in the words on one reviewer. Any one of these issues could be the theme of the book. In the hands of a less-skilled writer, the whole plot could dissolve into absurdity. A book I read earlier this year did just that, and as I looked back on that review, I realized how delicately Fay handles all the issues of The Shortest Way Home. I kept reading because I really liked the characters and wanted to know how things would be resolved. Of course, as in all of life, there is no absolute resolution, but the characters find a way to clear back some of the brambles that cover the path to happiness.

Some of the more interesting questions raised in the book deal with Sean’s concerns about faith. His Catholic faith had served him well throughout his journeys and his nursing had been, in effect, a healing ministry. He prays over all his patients. But, things have changed. He tells his friend Rebecca: “I stopped believing in a God who cared.” She suggests that perhaps he had seen too much suffering. No, he admits that “It’s way more selfish than that. I stopped believing in a God who cared about me.” He had stopped believing that he had been chosen by God to do good in the world. An beguiling theme in and of itself.

I can recommend The Shortest Way Home to readers of family fiction or problem fiction. It is the third book of a series about a small New England town. You might also enjoy The World Without You by Joshua Henkin that I read a couple of months ago—similar themes, similar resolution—same literary quality. The Shortest Way Home was chosen as one of the top five best books of 2012 in women’s literature.

The review on The Book Reporter: http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/t...
Juliette Fay’s website: http://juliettefay.com/
Library Journal’s Best Women’s Fiction of 2012: http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/201...
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Nov 14, 2012 Pauline Tilbe rated it 5 of 5 stars

I happen to believe that anything written by Juliette Fay is a win. I believed that since I read Shelter Me. She develops characters and shows you the side that is imperfect and impatient, the depth of a character that you don't always get in a contemporary novel.
As much as Huntington's was a big piece of this story, the sensory issues that Kevin lived with were so enlightening. I really learned a lot about that. I felt like it tied in well with the whole family dysfunction and dynamics. I'm a...more

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Oct 24, 2012 LaQuita (Just Us Girls) rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Shortest Way Home was a really good read. This was my first time reading a book from Juliette Fay and I have to say I was really impressed. It's not too fast paced and it's not too slow. It's perfect. The description of the characters alone were written very well and I loved that they were very descriptive about the main character, Sean's, mother and the Huntington's disease that killed her. This is why Sean is the way he is throughout the story. Since the Huntington's disease killed his mot...more

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Sep 29, 2012 Viviane Crystal rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sean Doran has been working as a nurse in areas devastated by hurricanes and other natural disasters as well as countries ravaged by poverty, illiteracy, and disease. But now he seems to be suffering from a massive case of burn-out, complicated by searing back pain that cripples him. He has no commitments to anyone and knows it. So he decides to return home to a small Massachusetts town, home where his Aunt Vivvy, his sister Deirdre and his nephew Kevin live. And it's a visit he dreads!

This fami...more Sean Doran has been working as a nurse in areas devastated by hurricanes and other natural disasters as well as countries ravaged by poverty, illiteracy, and disease. But now he seems to be suffering from a massive case of burn-out, complicated by searing back pain that cripples him. He has no commitments to anyone and knows it. So he decides to return home to a small Massachusetts town, home where his Aunt Vivvy, his sister Deirdre and his nephew Kevin live. And it's a visit he dreads!

This family is paralyzed by fear of the unknown, manifest in his mother's death years ago from Huntington disease, a hereditary disease that works fast and furious before it kills. There's a test to find out if Sean and his sister have the disease but each has opted not to know being more of a sane decision than living knowing one is a walking time bomb.

The first thing Sean has to absorb is that life has progressed for his former friends, both male and female. He is surrounded by people who have tangible, loving relationships and who love living in that state with its good and bad times. Sean will slowly begin to form a connection to a former high school sweetheart and a massage therapist who is able to work miracles on his bum back. Kevin, it turns out, has a sensitivity condition that he has learned to cope with, mainly because there's hardly anyone else who knows he's alive. It's quite a collection of problems for someone trying to "rest a bit" before packing up to help others in need in some devastated spot in the third world.

The Shortest Way Home is an adult "coming of age" tale, a story where Sean learns to not only serve others but also discovers it's quite different when one discovers love is in the mix, including his long-lost father who reappears after desertion over twenty-five years ago. Once he learns that in each situation, he is faced with new choices. No, it's not easy but it's told in such a practical, real, and endearing fashion that the reader will have a different type of reading experience, one that elicits hope and care for the characters herein as well as one's own life. Tender yet funny, sincere yet gritty, this story is beautifully crafted and a delight!(less)

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Sep 27, 2012 Nancy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It's not a fast moving story nor is it evocative or highly moving. It quietly educates the reader on a number of common and uncommon maladies along with a message of looking close to home for the best place to serve.

The protagonist is Sean, a 43 year old man, who has been spent the past couple of decades running himself ragged in war torn and health ravaged countries. As a registered male nurse, he has dedicated his life to help the less fortunate...more I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It's not a fast moving story nor is it evocative or highly moving. It quietly educates the reader on a number of common and uncommon maladies along with a message of looking close to home for the best place to serve.

The protagonist is Sean, a 43 year old man, who has been spent the past couple of decades running himself ragged in war torn and health ravaged countries. As a registered male nurse, he has dedicated his life to help the less fortunate and put himself in harms way to better the lives of others. Sean believes he is a ticking time bomb. His mother was diagnosed with early onset Huntington's Disease and died young. His father then abandoned the remaining three children for the Merchant Marines and the bottle. They grew up with their mother's sister, a spinster satisfied with keeping others distant and cold.

Huntington's Disease is genetic and not found statistically higher in either gender. Children of people with Huntington's Disease have a 50% chance of having it themselves. The age of onset is typically by early forties. It is degenerative and uncurable. It affects the body but especially the mind. There is now a test for the disease but this is one aspect that was not covered in the book, there are repercussions for possibly having it before onset. One family I knew had five children before the mother was discovered to have the disease. The impeccably dressed and beautiful young woman with all the social graces spiraled to an obsessive, bad tempered and overweight woman with no memory of her husband and children and threw food at her caregivers. The father wanted to plan for the children and the care of his wife was financially ruining him. He didn't dare have them tested for fear they would be uninsurable once the results were revealed to the insurance company. Eventually, he divorced his wife so she could be placed into the custody of the state and drove the children to Canada where they were tested. Only the father knows which of the children will develop Huntington's Disease.

Sorry for the detour.

So Sean is summoned home. He is now confused and reasonably certain he dodged the Huntington's bullet. So what does he do now? At this point, Sean grapples with faith in God, the bigger picture, and "now what". His aunt seems to be developing possible Alzheimer's. His younger sister is tired of being the caregiver and wants to have a life. His younger brother, who lived life hard, died of pneumonia years before but has a son who is now 11 years old. The boy has some interesting quirks. Kevin is a great vehicle for educating the readers on a few different differences of the nervous system that are not uncommon and affect many children and adults. I loved the way the information was presented. Sean wants to understand Kevin better and ends up discovering more about his brother. For good measure, the grown children's father makes an appeal to enter their lives again.

For having a male protagonist, the book is still perfect Chick Lit. There is a romance developing and a couple of mild sex scenes thrown in for good measure. Nothing blush worthy, just good, clean fornication.

I can't just justify that last sentence.

It's a great book to savor on vacation or cozy nights under a quilt. I really enjoyed it.
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Sep 26, 2012 Edna Tollison rated it 5 of 5 stars

As I begin to read I was not sure if it would be a book I would enjoy as I have never read any of Juliette's books.

This is a very interesting book as Sean Doran's mother had died when he was young with Huntington disease and he didn't know if it had been handed down to him or not, so he decided to become a nurse and went to the third world countries to help there. He was in his forties and something happened at home with his aunt that had been diagnosed with dementia. He head home to help her...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Charlotte rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: advanced-readers-copy, nook

http://charlotteswebofbooks.blogspot....

The Shortest Way Home was a really sweet, tender family novel. It is rare for a Women's Fiction book to be told from a male viewpoint, but Juliette Fay has done just that. Sean is a good guy who was, first, glad to be home around the familiarity of his past, but then realized just how badly Kevin needed a father figure and how badly Aunt Vivian needed a caretaker. The realization of how badly they needed him was a bit suffocating at first and that is where...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Michelle rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel is quite different from the author's first two novels. First the main character is a man. I thought he was sort of an unusual man, not a character that we often find in books. I sympathized with his fear of illness, but I wondered about his lack of awareness as to why he had run away from his family. The concept of devotion and responsibility is well thought out in this story. Is Sean responsible only to himself? Does he owe anything to the woman who raised him and to his sister and t...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Amy rated it 2 of 5 stars

*SPOILER ALERT* The storyline started out good...characters were interesting and fun. But it ended up being very predictable.

When Sean & Rebecca started their romance, I felt like it became more about when they'd get together again than about anything else. Sean's so excited when his old high school crush is interested in him. But then 'surprisingly' breaks up with her when he finds he's interested in Rebecca instead. I felt like you never really understood what changed with Sean to make th...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Mary (BookHounds) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, from-publisher-author

MY THOUGHTS

LOVED IT

Sean's mother died young of Huntington's Disease, something he has a 50-50 chance of inheriting. As a nurse who has devoted his life to helping those in need in the most desperate of areas, he is now burned out and heading home, something he has avoided through his good deeds. When he arrives there, he realizes that his aunt Vivian might have dementia or Alzheimers while his sister, Deidre, is clueless while she tries to be an actress. His nephew, Kevin, has his own issues, ma...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a well-paced book about family and the ties that eventually bind. Sean is a middle-aged man who, over the course of a summer, finds his home where he least expects it -- at the home and hometown where he grew up. He returns after many years in third world countries working as a nurse, helping the truly helpless. A recurring back problem forces him to take some time off to recover and reconnect with his fractured family, a sister ready to take flight from the home that has trapped her,the...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Lelia Taylor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: full-reviews

The Shortest Way Home
Juliette Fay
Penguin Books, October 2012
ISBN 9780143121916
Trade Paperback

You might think that a guy who makes his living as a nurse in remote, poverty-stricken countries would be able to come home for a little bit of rest and recuperation from the toll such difficult work has taken on his body. Yeah, not so much.

Sean is at a crossroads. He has apparently outrun the likelihood of having inherited Huntington’s Disease from his mother but his body is wracked with constant pain a...more The Shortest Way Home
Juliette Fay
Penguin Books, October 2012
ISBN 9780143121916
Trade Paperback

You might think that a guy who makes his living as a nurse in remote, poverty-stricken countries would be able to come home for a little bit of rest and recuperation from the toll such difficult work has taken on his body. Yeah, not so much.

Sean is at a crossroads. He has apparently outrun the likelihood of having inherited Huntington’s Disease from his mother but his body is wracked with constant pain and he seems to have lost some of the drive that has led him to spend years giving service to others in dire need. Home is where he needs to be for a while, especially since things are not so good there, either, with his aunt showing signs of dementia, his orphaned nephew withdrawing from the world and his sister becoming angrier every day that she has had to give up most of her dreams to watch over Aunt Vivvy and Kevin. Sean’s faith is taking a hit, too, and his prayers just don’t seem to mean as much as they used to.

Little by little, though, Sean begins to make connections with his past through friends old and new, even with those issues that will probably never be fully resolved, and he finds that the present may not be in such depressing shape as he thought. Coming home started out as an obligation to family as well as an escape from physical pain and emotional bleakness. Could it be that coming home will turn out to be his salvation?

Author Juliette Fay has already established herself as a writer who has that special touch with words, who can pull the reader into the story she’s telling, and this book is no exception. Her rich prose and her insight into people’s behavior are what make this true comfort fiction and men will enjoy it just as much as women.

One of the pleasures of The Shortest Way Home is a cast of characters that are mostly very likeable and even those who are not so appealing still engage the reader’s interest. In short, Sean and his family and friends are the sort of people you can find in your own surroundings and so they feel “real” for lack of a better word. I was engaged with Sean from the beginning and, as time went on, I found myself rooting for this man who had fled his own uncertain future but had, as a result, become a man dedicated to helping others. Perhaps it’s now Sean’s turn to find happiness and peace.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, November 2012.(less)

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Nov 12, 2012 Sharon Galligar rated it 5 of 5 stars

"The Shortest Way Home" is a novel that has many different personalities! It's a story about family loyalty, it's a story about one man's journey back home, it's a story about parenting, it's a love story, and it's a story about how one family deals with a devastating disease and how it affects them all.

Juliette Fay introduces her readers to the charming Irish-American Doran family in this fascinating novel. Sean Doran's homecoming from years abroad working as a disaster relief nurse is not the...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a fantastic novel! I admit that I haven't read anything else by Fay, but will now search out her previous works. I really loved this story, despite its predictability. The characters were all very likeable and engaging. Although I have nothing in common with the protagonist: male, 40s (almost there, but not quite!), bachelor, nurse in war-torn countries, and self-centred, I really liked him and felt connected to him. This has to be due to the author's style of writing and ability to make he...more

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May 05, 2013 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

It took me a couple chapters to fully invest but I'm so glad that I did. Fay does a great job creating a cast of characters that you care about, particularly the 12-year-old daughter of the main character who is flirting with bulimia. This is a story about personal transformation and resilience in the face of challenging circumstances. Any mother can relate to the heartache and angst that Dana, the newly divorced main character feels for her children as they navigate the difficult and cutthroat...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Jan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, keeper

Sean Doran is a loner, a registered nurse who has spent his career working in the disasters and demands of the Third World. As he begins to burn out, he receives a letter from his sister asking him to come home. The home life he ran away from and the reasons for his escape are ready to be dealt with even if he is not. As he gradually readjusts to a life with plumbing and family obligations, he also begins to discover the rewards of relationships new and old and a new kind of living.
I don't think...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved this book. I’ve been a fan of Juliette Fay since reading the first few chapters of her debut Shelter Me. Juliette is one of those writers who has a way of getting inside her characters, with the unique ability of making them come to life on each and every page.

Due to Sean's mother passing away from Huntington's disease, there is a 50% probability that Sean might inherit it. This prompts Sean to devote his life to helping and caring for others as a nurse in third world countri...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love to read a book where the characters' lives are a bigger mess than your's are. So I present this book. Sean has been running away for the last 25 years in guise of a nurse working in third world countries admist revolutions, genocide, and natural disasters.Forced to return home due to his health and family obligations he no longer can ignore, he is confronted with his real life. It comes in all different forms, an elderly aunt with dementia, an orphaned 11-year-old nephew with issues, a si...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a lovely little book--slow moving in plot development yet full of rich details of everday life. Fay weaves issues like sensory processing disorder, Huntington's disease, and facial deformity into her book in such a way that they all serve to highlight the imperfections of life. As my dear friend Chanya used to say "Life is messy," and this book celebrates the messy in a touching way. The story is part a romance between Sean and his friend from high school Rebecca, as much as it is a tale...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Peebee rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's family drama chick lit, and not going to change the world or anything, but two things really made it stand out. One is that it was written from a male perspective, which you don't often see, and dealt with a serious disease (Huntingdon's) without it taking over the book and becoming a disease drama. Fay's writing is very readable....it's not dumbed down or lacking in suspense, but you don't have to wade through dense prose either. I have had one of Fay's other books, Shelter Me, on my to-re...more

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Dec 08, 2012 Maurynne rated it 4 of 5 stars

I like her books a lot, they are thoughtful and ring emotionally true. people die, are broken, people laugh, find love. Like being friends with someone for a while. There's a thread of religion in this book also, that I liked. Not as a preachy thing, but that the main character is a guy who prays and thinks about God, even if he might be mad sometimes. I was touched by the church scene with a homily on the Garden of Eden, the theme being that God blesses us even after we screw up. I like books w...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Juliette Fay brings us a sympathetic and interesting protagonist in Sean Doran, a man who thinks he's doomed to a midlife death from the genetic disorder that took his mother, but begins to wonder if that is perhaps not his fate. After years of working overseas as an RN in some of the neediest places in the world, Sean is called back to his hometown, to the fractured family he has kept at arm's length.
(What does he find when he returns home? Sorry but you'll have to read to find out.)
While not...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-s-lit

Sean Doran has spent the last twenty years as a nurse living and working overseas in some of the poorest places imaginable. Leaving home as a young man, Sean never married fearing he was a carrier of the Huntington’s gene, the disease which caused the death of his mother.

Lately Sean has been suffering from chronic back pain and feeling burned out from the stress of the job. He decides to make a trip back to his childhood home in Belham, MA for a short rest and to take some time to decide where t...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Shellie (Layers of Thought) rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: almost everyone

Recommended to Shellie (Layers of Thought) by: FSB Associates

Shelves: country-africa, element-disabilties-mental-illness, genre-general-fiction-literature, read-in-2012, genre-spirituality-religion

Original review posted at Layers of Thought.

Look past the cover to find a down-to-earth, mildly spiritual (Catholic), yet contemporary look into the life a commitment-phobic middle aged male nurse. When he finds himself “home” for the first time in 20 years he is forced to decide what is truly important to him. With strong threads containing mental illness and disabilities, internal and external conflicts, sweet humor and more - it’s one of my favorite “uplifting” reads of the past year.

About: S...more Original review posted at Layers of Thought.

Look past the cover to find a down-to-earth, mildly spiritual (Catholic), yet contemporary look into the life a commitment-phobic middle aged male nurse. When he finds himself “home” for the first time in 20 years he is forced to decide what is truly important to him. With strong threads containing mental illness and disabilities, internal and external conflicts, sweet humor and more - it’s one of my favorite “uplifting” reads of the past year.

About: Sean is a nurse who has spent most of his adult life in areas of the planet where there are more people than resources. Places where people are grateful for what little help a medical professional can give them even if it’s only a little more time to live. Sean has chosen this hard yet satisfying life because he is running from internal demons - a fear that he has inherited a nasty form of dementia called Huntington's disease. Sean doesn’t want to know if he has the disease, refuses to be tested for it, and has “a plan” once the symptoms begin to appear.

When he receives a letter from his sister while still working in Africa, she directly states she needs him to return to take on his share of their family responsibilities. So he does, but not entirely based upon the letter. It appears the fates have conspired to bring him back home since he’s completely burned out and his back is aching so badly - so back to Boston it is.

Needless to say things are not the most functional with his family. There are A LOT of complications. His aunt (the family Matriarch) is loosing her memory, his sister deserves some of the freedom he’s enjoyed over the years (she too may have the disease) and she is resentful. But the most significant “complication” is his pre-teen nephew, who is in a precarious transitional period, and in desperate need of support. And then there’s the dog.

Thoughts: This was a rewarding and slightly funny read with its real-life aspects that takes the tone from sweet to unsentimental. There are the shocking parts about nursing in a third world country, and dealing with the devastation of dementia, abandonment, alcohol abuse, and childhood psychological disorders. This book is a real mix of true-to-life problems with complex emotions and entanglements associated with them. But they are handled seriously and with a soft touch by the author.

The story has a mild element containing Catholicism. Appropriately so, since the main character - Sean’s da/dad - is from Ireland. And since the characters are of Irish decent there is also a fun part where several of the characters take a trip to Ireland. This may intrigue many readers and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

But I think the best part of this story are the characters. They are complex, well developed and mostly likeable; even the prickly ones, giving a literary feel to the novel. It’s being marketed as women’s fiction (look at the cover), but it’s more than that. I can say that men may enjoy this novel too if they can get beyond its cover’s femininity, and its obvious design for attracting women. Publishers have to sell books and women buy the most.

Just a few mild complaints - The Shortest Way Home is another one of those reads where there is a light romantic element which was slightly too “mushy” for me, and also several of the sex scenes left me with a misplaced guffaw (not my favorite reaction for a “romantic interlude”). However, it was an engrossing and entertaining read. I devoured it in a few days and give it a 4-star rating. (less)

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Dec 07, 2012 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sean Doran’s goal in life is to leave his past behind and do as much good as possible as a nurse in third world war and natural disaster sites. Sean’s mother passed away and his father left Sean and his siblings in the care of their stern aunt and never returned. With a lot of pent up anger Sean just wanted to get away.
After years of traveling from one locale to another while helping put strangers lives back together, Sean finds he is burned out and heads home for a short visit. He becomes immer...more

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About Juliette Fay

Juliette is the author of SHELTER ME (HarperCollins 2009) a 2009 Massachusetts Book Award “Book of the Year,” and DEEP DOWN TRUE (Viking Penguin 2011) which was shortlisted for the Women's Fiction Award of the American Library Association.

Her latest, THE SHORTEST WAY HOME, was chosen for Library Journal's Best of 2012: Women's Fiction.

Juliette received a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and...more

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