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22nd out of 33 books
—
54 voters
Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship
“It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.”
So begins this gorgeous memoir by Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Caldwell, a testament to the power of friendship, a story of how an extraordinary bond between two women can illuminate the loneliest, funniest, hardest moments in life, including the final and ultimate...more
So begins this gorgeous memoir by Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Caldwell, a testament to the power of friendship, a story of how an extraordinary bond between two women can illuminate the loneliest, funniest, hardest moments in life, including the final and ultimate...more
Hardcover, 190 pages
Published
August 10th 2010
by Random House
(first published 2010)
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In this "memoir of friendship", Gail Caldwell gives us a loving view into her life with her dog Clementine which provided her entree into a life-changing friendship with Caroline Knapp, a fellow author and dog-lover.
Through a mutual acquaintance, she was introduced to this woman who would become a soulmate. They challenge each other in multiple ways to become their personal best. Their friendship developed over years until Caroline's diagnosis with terminal lung cancer .
It's difficult to adequa...more
Through a mutual acquaintance, she was introduced to this woman who would become a soulmate. They challenge each other in multiple ways to become their personal best. Their friendship developed over years until Caroline's diagnosis with terminal lung cancer .
It's difficult to adequa...more
How can I rate a book 5 stars when it's a memoir of the authors deep friendship with Caroline Knapp, her dog Clementine and her personal growth through that friendship and the death of her friend and then of her dog. Because it is so beautifully and honestly written. As is written on the back jacket of the book by Patricia B. McConnell, "If you've ever had a soul mate, whether human or canine, this book was written for you. If you haven't, this honest and liberating memoir will help you find one...more
Sendo uma obra autobiográfica que visa a relação da autora Gail Caldwell com a sua falecida amiga Caroline, "Um Longo Regresso a Casa" não é uma estória com um final feliz, mas não menos especial e comovente.
Através desta obra, Gail imortaliza a sua amizade profunda pela sua querida amiga, descrevendo-nos pormenorizadamente essa ligação tão intensa a que apenas alguns seres humanos têm acesso.
Embora um livro pequeno e com letras de tamanho garrafal, não é, de todo, uma leitura fácil ou rápida, d...more
Através desta obra, Gail imortaliza a sua amizade profunda pela sua querida amiga, descrevendo-nos pormenorizadamente essa ligação tão intensa a que apenas alguns seres humanos têm acesso.
Embora um livro pequeno e com letras de tamanho garrafal, não é, de todo, uma leitura fácil ou rápida, d...more
If I could give this an additional fractional star I would. Maybe 3.5 or 3.75. It has one of the best first lines I've ever read: "It's an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too." I was hooked, and that's what I wanted to read about: the memoir of friendship, and unbearable loss. That's all in there and is so good. But I was distracted by the long, long story of the author's struggle with, and recovery from alcoholism which had happe...more
7 likes · like · see review
I wanted to read this book as soon as I found out that it was about the author's friendship with Caroline Knapp, who had written with brutal, eloquent honesty about her struggle with alcohol in Drinking: A Love Story. When I learned that Caroline had actually died from cancer 8 years after she stopped drinking, reading this book became an obsession. It felt almost like a betrayal, that she died after she had ended her memoir on such a positive, strong note. I had to read about the end of her lif...more
The subtitle is misleading: this isn't so much a memoir of friendship as of the loss of that friendship. It's specifically about grief: that weird absence of the person you loved which is almost like a presence itself, a negative exposure: not their eyes, not their hair, not their voice.... When the book focuses on bereavement it's stunning. The friendship itself is not that well-portrayed, compared to, say, another writer's-memoir-of-a-dead-woman-writer-friend, Ann Patchett's Truth and Beauty....more
9 likes · like · see review
Apr 29, 2012
Tinkerbell - Blog MyImaginarium
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2012
http://the-door-to-my-imaginarium.blo...
Ser ter lido a sinopse e pela capa o livro pareceu-me um livro de ficção. Mas estava errada. É um livro verídico sobre duas melhores amigas. Gail e Caroline. A autora, Gail, retrata no livro a amizade de ambas até à morte de Caroline e o que essa perda lhe provocou.
Este livro é uma homenagem à amizade. É uma reflexão sobre as experiências em conjunto, sentimentos e confidências partilhadas…é um livro que nos faz pensar na vida, em aproveitar os momentos co...more
Ser ter lido a sinopse e pela capa o livro pareceu-me um livro de ficção. Mas estava errada. É um livro verídico sobre duas melhores amigas. Gail e Caroline. A autora, Gail, retrata no livro a amizade de ambas até à morte de Caroline e o que essa perda lhe provocou.
Este livro é uma homenagem à amizade. É uma reflexão sobre as experiências em conjunto, sentimentos e confidências partilhadas…é um livro que nos faz pensar na vida, em aproveitar os momentos co...more
1 like · like · see review
Mar 09, 2012
Neide Parafitas
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
leituras-2012
Confesso que grande parte deste livro foi lida com um sentimento de grande desilusão! Não me sentia próxima das pessoas que integram a história deste livro (incluindo a autora)e para ser franca, o livro revelou-se aquém das minhas expectativas!!
Contudo, mais para o final do livro descobri um sentimento totalmente diferente relativamente ao mesmo! A autora conseguiu captar a minha atenção com a forma como descreveu os seus sentimentos perante o acontecimento que marca a necessidade de escrever es...more
Contudo, mais para o final do livro descobri um sentimento totalmente diferente relativamente ao mesmo! A autora conseguiu captar a minha atenção com a forma como descreveu os seus sentimentos perante o acontecimento que marca a necessidade de escrever es...more
This book really touched me on many levels. It is the story of friendship between Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp, one of my favourtie authors (I loved "Drinking" and "Why Women Want". Caldwell describes the intimate friendship that develops between the two women who are both soically akward and shy. I can so relate to that. It is often difficult for me to make the small talk that seems so necessary in our society, and yet I thrive on deep connection with others. The two women met because of th...more
1 like · like · see review
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
They met over their dogs. Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp (author of Drinking: A Love Story) became best friends, talking about everything from their love of books and their shared history of a struggle with alcohol to their relationships with men. Walking the woods of New England and rowing on the Charles River, these two private, self-reliant women created an attachment more profound than either of them could ever have foreseen. Then, several years into this remarka
I had a tough time deciding on a rating for Caldwell's Let's Take The Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship. The book sets up the premise immediately, so what I'm about to write is not a spoiler. Caldwell shares the story of her friendship with Caroline, also a writer, who passes away far too early in life. They form a close bond few people outside of an intimate relationship sustain. Their friendship is based on their common experiences, their love of their dogs, their push for physical enduran...more
I was surprised that the author won a Pulitzer, but not because her writing isn't perfect - because it was for book criticism! We give Pulitzers for that?
Those must be some reviews.
I'd like to see HER Goodreads.
That aside... there's not much to say about this book, because it's so good. The praise: Gail Caldwell's writing is as crystal-clear, down-to-earth, evocative, and packed with meaning as good poetry. She balances her individual memories with her memories of their friendship perfectly....more
Those must be some reviews.
I'd like to see HER Goodreads.
That aside... there's not much to say about this book, because it's so good. The praise: Gail Caldwell's writing is as crystal-clear, down-to-earth, evocative, and packed with meaning as good poetry. She balances her individual memories with her memories of their friendship perfectly....more
Having run across the dust cover description a few months ago I was looking forward to reading this book. Just the title implied a warm and deep sense of friendship. Unfortunately for me I felt the author was trying too hard to impress the reader with her intellect rather than just allow simple emotions and straightforward language convey the connection between these friends.
There's a brief introduction about how they became acquainted and almost suddenly they're soul mates. Six years after form...more
There's a brief introduction about how they became acquainted and almost suddenly they're soul mates. Six years after form...more
Gail Caldwell's interior monologues in LET'S TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME are well-tuned to grief and remembrance. As a reader I entered that country of sorrow where Caldwell's anguish and yearning over the loss of her friend Caroline Knapp resided with total trust in her narrative powers. Not only were her feelings for her friend palpable and real, but her search for solace and understanding yielded such beautifully profound passages as this one:
"Grief is fundamentally a selfish business. Stripped of...more
"Grief is fundamentally a selfish business. Stripped of...more
I've read about 30 memoirs; this one goes in my top 5. I recommend it to anyone who likes a good, literary memoir about friendship and loss.
This memoir tells the story of the relationship between two best friends, acclaimed writers Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp. The reader discovers at the beginning of the memoir that Caroline Knapp dies; the first line reads, "It's an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too." The memoir narrates...more
This memoir tells the story of the relationship between two best friends, acclaimed writers Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp. The reader discovers at the beginning of the memoir that Caroline Knapp dies; the first line reads, "It's an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too." The memoir narrates...more
If you were a fan of Caroline Knapp, her writing, or both, you will want to read this.
Caldwell, her best friend, has much to add to the story of Knapp, who died very young.
I came to Knapp as many did through Drinking: A Love Story, one of the very few excellent memoirs published at the beginning of the modern memoir craze in the 1990s. Knapp's journalist's view of her problems and triumphs is separate from most of the indulgence we've become used to in memoir. Caldwell, also a journalist, tell...more
Caldwell, her best friend, has much to add to the story of Knapp, who died very young.
I came to Knapp as many did through Drinking: A Love Story, one of the very few excellent memoirs published at the beginning of the modern memoir craze in the 1990s. Knapp's journalist's view of her problems and triumphs is separate from most of the indulgence we've become used to in memoir. Caldwell, also a journalist, tell...more
It's hard to comment on a book written about someone who was once a close friend. Memoirs, especially the chick- lit kind, seem to be a genre in itself; I can't help wondering whether the subject matter, if reinvented and re-imagined,might make a better novel than what's currently on the page. There seems to be a hunger for books about the intricacies of interpersonal relationships told from a middle-aged female point of view, but I find they go right through me, like an article in a woman's mag...more
"It's an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too."
With this lyrical sentence, Gail Caldwell opens her story of her friendship with the writer Caroline Knapp. Both its gentleness and its foreboding draw the reader in to this finely told tale of love and grief.
Not many people treasure a friendship as deeply as did these two writers who for most of their lives were introverted, and content to be so. "As much as I complained about my soli...more
With this lyrical sentence, Gail Caldwell opens her story of her friendship with the writer Caroline Knapp. Both its gentleness and its foreboding draw the reader in to this finely told tale of love and grief.
Not many people treasure a friendship as deeply as did these two writers who for most of their lives were introverted, and content to be so. "As much as I complained about my soli...more
touching book about her extremely close friendship with another middle-aged woman. they had a lot in common, enjoying sports (one teaches the other rowing and they spend a lot of time on the Charles River) and dogs [walked their dogs together daily], having ups and downs with men, etc. both are writers, both recovering from alcohol dependency.
Brief draggy digression into a drunkalogue in the middle, but otherwise terrific. Very poignant account of her friend's death from lung cancer. I can tell...more
Brief draggy digression into a drunkalogue in the middle, but otherwise terrific. Very poignant account of her friend's death from lung cancer. I can tell...more
This book’s subtitle says what it is is. Even if it would be insensitive to be critical of this kind of book, I would, but I rather liked this book. It was a bit heavy on the dog stuff, but that is sometimes the price of admission for childless, single people, and even married non breeders.
Ms. Caroline Knapp, another writer I like, but wish she wrote less about her dog, passed away pretty suddenly from cancer when she was in her forties. (Sadly, I guess my wish came true…) Caldwell and Knapp we...more
Gail Caldwell has written a beautiful and very heartfelt book of friendship between women. She captures the importance and depth of such a relationship.
Originally, she and Caroline (Knapp) connect through the common bond of their love of dogs. Over the following years Gail and Caroline become the best of friends, experiencing many life situations, serious issues, and remain connected through it all.
There is strength in numbers. When we are young we don't realize the ease with which we have of ma...more
Originally, she and Caroline (Knapp) connect through the common bond of their love of dogs. Over the following years Gail and Caroline become the best of friends, experiencing many life situations, serious issues, and remain connected through it all.
There is strength in numbers. When we are young we don't realize the ease with which we have of ma...more
I am not sure that at this point in my life this was a good book to read. I noticed it in the store a couple months ago and picked up when I was at the library yesterday. I love reading stories about friendships so I picked this up thinking it would be a story a la Kristin Hanna Bestfriends Forever. The first difference was that this book is a nonfiction memoir. There are two best friends and one really did die." It's an old,old story. I had a friend and we shared everything and then she died an...more
I loved Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship. It is easy to picture and relate to the life she describes in brief, "single woman, doesn't want kids, loves dogs." I'm tempted to quote Caldwell's long explanation as well because she says it so well. But then I've marked my copy of the book in so many places and I realize that quoting whole sections of her book makes for a boring review.
What I loved about the book and why I recommend it: Caldwell writes so well and the story of the...more
What I loved about the book and why I recommend it: Caldwell writes so well and the story of the...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Let's Take the Long Way Home is a memoir that covers less than a decade of Gail Caldwell's career and personal life. Gail is a writer's writer and she's lived a writer's life. She's the former chief book critic for The Boston Globe where she wrote for more than 20 years. With a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (2001), this is not her first memoir and it's not so much about her as it is about her friend Caroline and their friendship based on the bonds of their canine companions. Caroline Knapp (the a...more
This novel was extremely hard emotionally for me to read. Gail Caldwell brings such emotion into her writing that I felt as if I was losing my best friend along with her. Her grief escaped the pages and buried itself into my heart. Her story is not one of hope, but more a story of what she had and will continue to cherish for the rest of her life.
This story is about best friends both of the human and the canine sort. It goes through Gail's love and devotion to both and how she coped with the gr...more
This story is about best friends both of the human and the canine sort. It goes through Gail's love and devotion to both and how she coped with the gr...more
2011 Book 22/100
It started with this line “It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.” This book grabbed my heart and I stayed up later than I should have to finish this beautiful telling of a friendship between two literary women (Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp, author of Drinking: A Love Story) written by the former Pulitzer Prize winner, Gail Caldwell. The friendship was intense, long-lasting, and built on shared interests...more
It started with this line “It’s an old, old story: I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too.” This book grabbed my heart and I stayed up later than I should have to finish this beautiful telling of a friendship between two literary women (Gail Caldwell and Caroline Knapp, author of Drinking: A Love Story) written by the former Pulitzer Prize winner, Gail Caldwell. The friendship was intense, long-lasting, and built on shared interests...more
Gail Caldwell wrote “Let’s Take the Long Way Home” to remember her friend Caroline Knapp, who died way too soon. It’s a memoir of their friendship – how they met, why their friendship was so profound, the devastation of being forcibly separated and without warning. Caldwell is a notable, skilful writer and I was excited to read her interpretation of something that is so close and near to my heart – friendship.
Her prose is beautiful, and what takes it from poetry on a page to something integrally...more
Her prose is beautiful, and what takes it from poetry on a page to something integrally...more
I read Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp a few months ago.
I remember just inhaling it. Her writing was incredible. Smart, funny, real. When I
finished it, I put the book down and went immediately to Amazon to read more of
her stuff. Which is when I discovered she had died of lung cancer in her early
40s in 2002. The voice of her memoir was so clear, and her personality shone
through and I felt sad to have lost such a voice.
Christmas time I learned that Gail Caldwell (her very best friend) ha...more
I remember just inhaling it. Her writing was incredible. Smart, funny, real. When I
finished it, I put the book down and went immediately to Amazon to read more of
her stuff. Which is when I discovered she had died of lung cancer in her early
40s in 2002. The voice of her memoir was so clear, and her personality shone
through and I felt sad to have lost such a voice.
Christmas time I learned that Gail Caldwell (her very best friend) ha...more
3 likes · like · see review
A memoir about friendship, the death of a friend, dogs, tough life moments, alcoholism, living.
Some of my favorite quotes:
It's taken years for me to understand that dying doesn't end the story; it transforms it. Edits, rewrites, the blur and epiphany of one-way dialogue. Most of us wander in and out of one another's lives until not death, but distance, does us part-time and space and the heart's weariness are the blander executioners of human connection.
The only education in grief that any of us...more
Some of my favorite quotes:
It's taken years for me to understand that dying doesn't end the story; it transforms it. Edits, rewrites, the blur and epiphany of one-way dialogue. Most of us wander in and out of one another's lives until not death, but distance, does us part-time and space and the heart's weariness are the blander executioners of human connection.
The only education in grief that any of us...more
2 likes · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffee Talk: Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell | 29 | 23 | Jan 15, 2013 08:23pm | |
| Coffee Talk: Margaret and Pam Read Together Challenge | 24 | 13 | Sep 19, 2012 01:49pm |
Gail Caldwell is the former chief book critic for The Boston Globe, where she was a staff writer and critic for more than twenty years. In 2001, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. She is also the author of A Strong West Wind, a memoir of her native Texas. Caldwell lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
More about Gail Caldwell...
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“I know now that we never get over great losses; we absorb them, and they carve us into different, often kinder, creatures.”
—
94 people liked it
“What they never tell you about grief is that missing someone is the simple part.”
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43 people liked it
More quotes…
Jun 17, 2011 08:17am
Jun 17, 2011 03:41pm