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Terfex.com - The Longest Trip Home: A Memoir
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List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $17.13
Your Save: $ 8.82 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: William Morrow
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.92
EAN: 9780061713248
ISBN: 0061713244
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2008-10-21
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: 2008-10-21
Studio: William Morrow
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Editorial Reviews:
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Finding your place in the world can be the longest trip home . . . In his debut bestseller, Marley & Me, John Grogan showed how a dog can become an extraordinary presence in the life of one family. Now, in his highly anticipated follow-up, Grogan again works his magic, bringing us the story of what came first. Before there was Marley, there was a gleefully mischievous boy growing up in a devout Catholic home outside Detroit in the 1960s and '70s. Despite his loving parents' best efforts, John's attempts to meet their expectations failed spectacularly. Whether it was his disastrous first confession, the use of his hobby telescope to take in the bronzed Mrs. Selahowski sunbathing next door, the purloined swigs of sacramental wine, or, as he got older, the fumbled attempts to sneak contraband past his father and score with girls beneath his mother's vigilant radar, John was figuring out that the faith and fervor that came so effortlessly to his parents somehow had eluded him. And then one day, a strong-willed young woman named Jenny walked into his life. As their love grew, John began the painful, funny, and poignant journey into adulthood -- away from his parents' orbit and into a life of his own. It would take a fateful call and the onset of illness to lead him on the final leg of his journey -- the trip home again. The Longest Trip Home is a book for any son or daughter who has sought to forge an identity at odds with their parents', and for every parent who has struggled to understand the values of their children. It is a book about mortality and grace, spirit and faith, and the powerful love of family. With his trademark blend of humor and pathos that made Marley & Me beloved by millions, John Grogan traces the universal journey each of us must take to find our unique place in the world. Filled with revelation and laugh-out-loud humor, The Longest Trip Home will capture your heart -- but mostly it will make you want to reach out to those you love.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An engaging first-person memoir about growing up and self-discovery in the 1960s and 1970s
Comment: Grogan's latest book is a candid memoir of his child- and young adult-hood. Those who have read Marley & Me will reconnect with the author as he tells engrossing stories about his life before marriage, kids, and pets. It's an easy read, told through the eyes of the author as a young man growing up in Catholic household during the evolution of the psychedelic era. It takes place during a very distinct time in American social history, when kids spent entire summers outdoors with their friends and dogs, and parents had high expectations of children and commanded their respect. Grogan recounts childhood boyish adventures, experimentation, independence, family and social influences as he transforms from an awkward pre-teen in a new neighborhood, to a confident and self-assured adult. Chapters are broken down into short stories that build upon the general theme of the memoir, which is practically an autobiography. Whether read in small bits or in a single-dose, you'll enjoy connecting with Grogan and getting to know him as he experiences personal growth during some of the most confusing times in a persons' life. I highly recommend this book and will encourage friends, family, and colleagues to read it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A "good Catholic boy" grows up
Comment: Just like Johnny Grogan, I was one of those "good Catholic boys." I could relate to almost all of it - the first confession and communion, the stinging rulers and strict discipline of the teaching nuns (in my case the School Sisters of Notre Dame), the family rosary nights on our knees in the living room during Lent, the altar boy sacristy and sanctuary shenanigans, the confusing onset of puberty with its secret struggles with the sin of "self-abuse" and the half-truths of weekly confessions, and then, finally, as a young man, the guilt-wracked break from all of it. It's very obvious, with the publication of THE LONGEST TRIP HOME, that there's a lot more to John Grogan than that "dog book" which (justly) made him famous. Marley, that notorious "world's worst dog," barely merits a mention in this richly textured memoir of growing up Catholic and working middle class in a northern Detroit suburb. Like me, Grogan attended Catholic school for nine years. His years at the Our Lady of Refuge parish elementary school were mostly happy, with his childhood chums, Tommy, Rock, Sack and Doggy. But his transition to Brother Rice, a prestigious Catholic high school in another town was neither happy nor easy. After a year of this lonely exile, his parents - always perceptive when it most mattered - allowed Grogan to transfer back to West Bloomfield, the local high school where his friends had all gone. This was the beginning of his semi-stoner phase of adolescent rebellion, marked by brushes with local law enforcement and clashes with school officials. During this time he also learned to lie glibly to keep his parents happy. Yes, the good Catholic boy was learning to be bad. Grogan holds nothing back, he is painfully honest about everything in this book, which is precisely what makes it so good! He tells of his first high school kiss, a battle between tongues, lips and metal braces, which leaves him temporarily scarred - and made me laugh out loud. There are more such stories, of teen parties and lost virginity, of newfound popularity, of childhood friends drifting apart. But that's really all just in the first part of the book. The second part - college (CMU, where he cleans up his act and graduates with honors), work and finding true love - is equally honest in all the humor, heartbreak and pathos that is youth. But it is unquestionably the third part of the book that moved me the most. In it, Grogan struggles mightily to reconcile his differences with his still extremely religious parents, and finally, the wrenchingly sad portrayal of his father's final illness. There are a few stand-out scenes in this third, final portion of the book, although all of it is eloquently and heartbreakingly told. One is the evening that John gets out his camcorder and spends two hours interviewing and filming his father, hurting from the tortures of chemotherapy, as he talks about his life, some parts of which the son had never heard.
"For two hours Dad talked as I recorded. He described the early blissful years of their marriage in a one-bedroom apartment in Detroit with a cardboard box for a dining-room table. He described their first house, on Pembroke Street in Detroit, and how he built a sandbox in their tiny backyard ... He filled me in on everything he could think of that came before the point where my own memories began. Then he said, 'I'm feeling a little tired now,' and I turned off the camera and watched him, cane in hand, slowly climb the stairs to his bedroom."
Another hard scene to read is John sitting at his childhood home one night alone with his alzheimer-ravaged mother, his father in the hospital. It's just five days before Christmas. They talk idly of how there's no snow yet, but maybe soon.
"That's when she began to sing. Soft and reedy, her weak voice carrying a certain warble, as if coming from a tiny bird or a little girl. 'I'm dreaming of a White Christmas ...' I marveled at my mother's mind. From what part of her far-away mind had the song surfaced? I had not heard her sing 'White Christmas' in decades ... Neither of us knew more than the first verse, so we sand it over again. Over and over. When she had sung all she wanted, she stopped and sighed. 'That Bing Crosby, heavens how he could sing,' she said, and then she was asleep in her chair, the silence again enveloping us."
The third, and most unforgetttable scene for me was John Grogan's last one-sided conversation with his dying, nearly comatose father. This from a man who thought he had lost his faith, to a man for whom faith had been central to his life for nearly ninety years: "Dad ... Jesus is going to take you home today. In just a little while, he's going to take you."
Reading this, my eyes filled with tears, I continued to read John Grogan's last words to his dad, telling how much he loved him. And I remembered, weeping, my last meeting with my own father, who was also dying of cancer. My family, like the Grogans, never found it easy to say, 'I love you.' So I didn't tell my dad that last time I saw him. How I wish I had. But I can't tell you how many times I have told him in the twenty years since then - in my head, in my heart: I love you, Dad. I miss you. You were the best.
John Grogan seized that moment: "'Dad, you know how much I love you. I love you so much ... I know you love me too ... Dad, it has been an honor to be your son. I am so honored and so proud.' I swallowed hard, fighting to maintain composure. 'An honor.'..."
All families are dysfunctional. The Grogan family, in spite of its perhaps extreme "Catholic-ness," was no different. But make no mistake. There was always love in this family. John Grogan never doubted that and demonstrates its in this loving memoir and family portrait. The book is completed, but Grogan is, I believe, still on a journey, making that "longest trip home." I hope he shares more of it with us.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the REED CITY BOY trilogy and LOVE, WAR & POLIO
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best Book I've Ever Read
Comment: This book is the best book I've ever read. I laughed so hard my kids came running to see if I had 'lost it' then I cried so hard at the end I actually couldn't hold the book. John writes as if you are right there with him experiencing the same things he is....most of which I have growing up in suburban Detroit myself. Read this one first and then read Marly & Me and while I have to say I loved the story of Marley too, this one is my personal favorite.
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Summary: Excellent book in its own right, but being a cradle Catholic myself
Comment: it was outstanding. It went from laugh out loud funny, to sobbing uncontrollably. I grew up about the same time John did, was raised Catholic Irish, and abandoned the church at about the same age John did. John poked a little fun at his Catholic upbringing, but never crossed that line to irreverence or disrrespect. There are parts of this book that difinitely hit home (counting the Virgin Mary statues in the house)and the non Catholic may not find quite as entertaining, because they will probably think they are fabricated- they aren't!!! I love the part where John and Jenny stay in their parent's bedroom as newlyweds- with the crucifix, the Virgin Mary's and the rosary all staring at them.
I was a hippy, always in trouble, and was the first rebel in my family to quit Catholic school after sixth grade and attend public school. But will wonders never cease- after 30+ years of not stepping inside a church except for an occasional wedding or funeral I started attending Catholic Masses on a regular basis about 3 years ago. I thank God that I had a good foundation, and when I was ready to go back to church I knew where to go. I look back and am so appreciative that my family gave me the start that they did. This is a heartwarming book that I will definitely recommend- especially to my Catholic family and friends
Customer Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!
Comment: I was so disappointed in this book!!! The language was very filthy!! This book is the sexual coming of age of a teenage boy. Very graphic and dirty.
I usually give the books I've read to the GoodWill but this book went right into the garbage after a couple of chapters. Mr. Grogan, it is not necessary to use such profanity. I am so sorry that I spent money on this book. It is a waste.
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