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Long Way Back
by
Brendan Halpin (Goodreads Author)
From Brendan Halpin, author of the hilarious novel Donorboy and the intimate memoirs It Takes a Worried Man and Losing My Faculties, comes Long Way Back, a bighearted, thought-provoking story of faith, love, and punk rock.
Growing up with hippie activist parents, Clare and Francis Kelly share a strong bond. It’s firmly rooted in familial embarrassment (the Kellys’ house is ...more
Growing up with hippie activist parents, Clare and Francis Kelly share a strong bond. It’s firmly rooted in familial embarrassment (the Kellys’ house is ...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
January 29th 2008
by Villard Books
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Agathafrye
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Recommends it for:
music geeks & catholics & older teens
Punk rock, Catholicism, death, and redemption- an unlikely combo, but Mr. Halpin seems to have made it work in this coming-of-age-again book. Told from the perspective of sister Clare, the books begins when God moves through baby brother Francis in church while Clare observes. This epiphany remains Clare and Francis's secret and serves as a major plot element through the book. The book moves quickly through Clare and Francis's intimate youthful experiences with punk rock (their rebellion is s...more
A Long Way Back to me was different then I thought.When I read the summary in the back of the book. I thought it was going to be about kids growing up with hippie parents. It's actually about a guy name Franis and his sister is the one telling his story in the book. How her brother losses his wife and his catholic faith and eventually turns into this punk rock fan at an older age and sister feels that he's acting immature. I love the book I feel thta it' funny, sad but interesting.
Was actually worried that this was a christian propaganda book at first (Akin to Left Behind or other shit like that). I went online to make sure it wasn't, finished it and loved it. Great book about dealing with loss.
A book about a sad subject, the death of family members, and how the loved ones cope, but told with much humour, and plenty of music references to keep me happy!
a quickly absorbing story of love, faith, grief, music, family, meaning, punk rock and the ramones. far better than any sort of quick annotation would lead you to believe. i had some minor quibbles and i have a major issue with the cover of the edition i read, but those are insignificant compared to my overall experience with the book, which i totally stayed up too late to finish and haven't entirely stopped thinking about all day. and even if i had been feeling totally cynical and hatey about t...more
I devoured this book, staying up until past sunrise to get to the end. Loved it!
A great suggestion from Ruth. I loved it!
This one just really hit me right in the gut. Maybe it's because my dad and I had such a great relationship through music and the 8-year anniversary of his death is coming up in a month...but I was sobbing at the end like nobody's business. I'm getting ready to go find out more about the author and his other books, because the central events to this novel have too much rawness to them not to have happened to the author himself.
I love this book. Despite the fact that it includes WAY more talk about God and praying than I can normally tolerate. It made me laugh out loud, and weep copiously, and stay up far too late finishing it. I guess you could say that it's a book about faith that even the entirely faithless can understand and identify with. Punk rock, death, God, and family ... that's potent stuff.
A fantastic book about how we can find our way back to faith in unexpected ways. A great summer read and certainly one I look forward to readig again over the years!
Zoe
marked it as to-read
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I grew up in Cincinnati, went to college in Philadelphia, and also lived in Taipei and Edinburgh along the way. I've lived in Boston since 1991.
I became a professional writer in 2000, writing about my late wife Kirsten's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Kirsten died in 2003, leaving me and our daughter Rowen. I married Suzanne in 2005 and got her kids Casey and Kylie in the dea...more
More about Brendan Halpin...
I became a professional writer in 2000, writing about my late wife Kirsten's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Kirsten died in 2003, leaving me and our daughter Rowen. I married Suzanne in 2005 and got her kids Casey and Kylie in the dea...more
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