“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...
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Nov 08, 2011
Sue
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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 .
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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 .
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Nov 13, 2010
Roxann
rated it: 
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
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Feb 21, 2011
Florinda
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Almost ten years ago, I read Caroline Knapp's memoir of dog ownership Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs, which explored, among other things, her relationship with her shepherd mix Lucille. I wasn't too far from being a single (divorced) woman with a dog myself, so I was intrigued by the story.[return][return]In many respects, though, Caroline and Lucille belonged to a "pack of four," along with Caroline's closest friend, Gail Caldwell ("Grace" in the boo
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Feb 09, 2012
Francesca
rated it: 
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
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Feb 03, 2012
Nancy
rated it:
"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. " 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. " More...
Jan 18, 2012
David
rated it:
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 More...
Brief draggy digression into a drunkalogue in the middle, but otherwise terrific. Very poignant account of her friend's death from lung cancer More...
Nov 13, 2011
Ruth
rated it:
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…) Ca More...
Nov 08, 2011
McGuffy Ann
rated it:
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 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 More...
Sep 27, 2011
Jennifer
rated it:
In her autobiography, Helen Keller wrote of the "red-letter days in our lives when we meet people who thrill us like a fine poem, people whose handshake is brimful of unspoken sympathy, and whose sweet, rich natures impart to our eager, impatient spirits a wonderful restfulness which, in its essence, is divine." Caldwell's memoir, Let's Take the Long Way Home, describes the red-letter day in her own life when she met just such a friend ("Even on that first afternoon we spent toget
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Sep 13, 2011
Natalia
rated it:
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 di
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Sep 01, 2011
Gaby
rated it:
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 we More...
What I loved about the book and why I recommend it: Caldwell writes so we More...
Aug 17, 2011
David
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Aug 08, 2011
SwensonBooks
rated it:
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
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Jul 27, 2011
Lisa
rated it:
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 cop 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 cop More...
Feb 20, 2011
cat
rated it:
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 share 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 share More...
Feb 14, 2011
Desiree
rated it:
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 More...
Her prose is beautiful, and what takes it from poetry on a page to something More...
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Feb 13, 2011
Amy
rated it:
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 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 More...
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Jan 26, 2011
Jan
rated it:
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 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 More...
Nov 30, 2010
Ana
rated it:
This review, which I wrote, appeared in the winter issue of the Community Grief and Counseling Center's newsletter (published by Hospice of the Valley in San Jose, CA)
In Let’s Take the Long Walk Home, author Gail Caldwell, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has written a beautiful homage to friendship, in which she shares a moving yet unsentimental story of love, loss,and personal transcendence.
The bond of friendship between Caldwell and writer Caroline Knapp (author of Drinki More...
In Let’s Take the Long Walk Home, author Gail Caldwell, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has written a beautiful homage to friendship, in which she shares a moving yet unsentimental story of love, loss,and personal transcendence.
The bond of friendship between Caldwell and writer Caroline Knapp (author of Drinki More...
Nov 07, 2010
Judy
rated it:
Friendship is a quality that I deeply value and I just don't understand people who can ignore, minimize, or throw away friends. My mother suffered a serious health crisis recently and I doubt that I could have gotten through the first couple of weeks without my friends, both near and far, stepping up and surrounding me with their love and support. So, given those circumstances, I was completely open to this book recounting Gail Caldwell's close friendship with Caroline Knapp. I was hooked fro
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Oct 11, 2010
Bill
rated it:
This is a memoir of the author's friendship with another author, Caroline Knapp. Caroline Knapp wrote some of my favorite books, including PACK OF TWO (a bit about the human-canine bond but mostly about her bond with her dog Lucille) and THE MERRY RECLUSE which is a collection of her columns. Sadly, Knapp was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and seven weeks later passed away. This book chronicles Caldwell's friendship with Knapp, which was set in motion by both of them being single women wh
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Sep 15, 2010
Susan
rated it:
Gail Caldwell celebrates her extraordinary friendship with
fellow writer Caroline Knapp in LET"S TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME. It is a
touching, honest, and often humorous look at their relationship–how
they met, why they bonded, and what kept them together. Her memories
are clear and deep, and she shares them all, not shying away from the
unpleasant nor overwhelming with the too saccharine.
Both women were recovering alcoholics; both were writers; both loved
More...
fellow writer Caroline Knapp in LET"S TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME. It is a
touching, honest, and often humorous look at their relationship–how
they met, why they bonded, and what kept them together. Her memories
are clear and deep, and she shares them all, not shying away from the
unpleasant nor overwhelming with the too saccharine.
Both women were recovering alcoholics; both were writers; both loved
More...
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Sep 08, 2010
Ahf
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The most extraordiary exploration of the two themes of friendship and death. Each is written about so compellingly either could hold the book up. Together they are quite amazing. "Finding Caroline was like placing a personal ad for an imaginary friend, then having her show up at your door funnier and better than you had concieved. Appart we had each been frightened drunks and aspiriting witers and dog lovers; together we became a small corporation"."sobriety, fo rth first time
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Sep 06, 2010
Mary
rated it:
When I heard about this book, I was instantly reminded of Ann Patchett's memoir about her friendship with writer Lucy Grealy, Truth & Beauty. While there are certainly parallels between the stories - female friendship, the writer's life, addiction - the two books resist comparison upon reading.
The reason for this is that there's a difference between the friends you meet in college, like Ann and Lucy's, where friend-making is facilitated, easy, and filled with moments that encourage li More...
The reason for this is that there's a difference between the friends you meet in college, like Ann and Lucy's, where friend-making is facilitated, easy, and filled with moments that encourage li More...
Sep 02, 2010
Let’s Take the Long Way Home, by Gail Caldwell, narrated by Joyce Bean, produced by Tantor Media, downloaded from audible.com.
The publisher’s note says it as well or better than I could. I was deeply moved by this book.
Publisher’s note:
In Let's Take the Long Way Home, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gail Caldwell offers a powerful and moving memoir about her coming-of-age in mid-life and
her extraordinary friendship with Caroline Knapp, the author of Drinking: A Love More...
The publisher’s note says it as well or better than I could. I was deeply moved by this book.
Publisher’s note:
In Let's Take the Long Way Home, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gail Caldwell offers a powerful and moving memoir about her coming-of-age in mid-life and
her extraordinary friendship with Caroline Knapp, the author of Drinking: A Love More...
Aug 21, 2010
Michelle
rated it:
Be sure you're in the right frame of mind to read this--it was quite sad. It is, after all, the story of when Caldwell loses her best friend. I enjoyed reading about how they met and how very much they actually had in common (from water sports to dogs to alcoholism). I couldn't help but think of my own best friend while reading this--although we're actually quite the polar opposites. But when the inevitable happens, Caldwell spares us nothing in the raw retelling of the unfolding events--thi
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Jan 03, 2012
Anna
rated it:
A memoir about the rare friendship between adult women who are both writers, who acknowledge and channel their competitiveness, but don't let it get in the way of real intimacy. The friendship begins around their mutual love of their respective new dogs, and that narrative takes us through their walks in the Middlesex Fells, and the Fresh Pond reservoir, places I love and have logged miles walking, sans dog. At other times, they are rowing on the Charles River, another touchstone of my own life-
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Aug 09, 2011
thewanderingjew
rated it:
Reminiscent of Beaches, Let’s Take The Long Way Home, is about two close friends. It is brief, less than 200 pages. More pages would quite possibly have made the subject matter unbearable. For me, the book arrived propitiously. Having just lost my closest friend (for decades), more like a sister, I was hoping I could read this book and gain comfort from the telling of her tale about loss and friendship.
I felt as if the first quarter of the book and last quarter of the book were more about More...
I felt as if the first quarter of the book and last quarter of the book were more about More...
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Jan 18, 2011
Rhonda
rated it:
I had read so much about this book in several magazines, so wanted to read it, but it was about a friendship with Caroline Knapp, who wrote a book years ago, and wanted to read her book first, which I did, and which I really liked.
This one, then, just didn't compare, but then, it was not about the same thing. Still I didn't enjoy it as much.
Author Gail and friend Caroline met while walking their dogs and struck a bonding friendship that lasted for years. Both were recover More...
This one, then, just didn't compare, but then, it was not about the same thing. Still I didn't enjoy it as much.
Author Gail and friend Caroline met while walking their dogs and struck a bonding friendship that lasted for years. Both were recover More...
Jan 09, 2011
Cathy
rated it:
From the opening remarks Gail Caldwell begins her account with a reflective quote of the story she shares with Caroline Knapp, her treasured friend. Sharing lives together with a strong common love for their dogs and other aspects of their existence in Cambridge, Massachusetts binds the lives of solitude that these two female writers share inexplicably one to another.
I felt privileged to have a window to this honest portrait of their shared journey and Caldwell's illuminating and bitte More...
I felt privileged to have a window to this honest portrait of their shared journey and Caldwell's illuminating and bitte More...
