Book Talk: “The Longest Trip Home,” by John Grogan (TLC Book Tour)

Disclosures: I received this book for review from the publisher via TLC Book Tours; no additional compensation was offered to me, or accepted by me. *The purchasing link at the end of this review goes through my Amazon Affiliates account.

The Longest Trip Home: A Memoir
John Grogan (blog)
Harper (2009), Paperback (ISBN 0061713309 / 9780061713309)
Nonfiction/memoir, 352 pages

Opening Lines: “The call came on a school night in the autumn of 2002. Jenny was out, and I was fixing dinner for our three children, who were already at the table. I grabbed the phone on the third ring.”

Book description: 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.

Comments: John Grogan’s second book for adults shows that he can write a moving and often hilarious memoir that doesn’t involve a dog. Of course, you didn’t have to be a dog person to love Marley & Me…but it didn’t hurt. At the same time, you don’t have to have grown up Catholic to appreciate The Longest Trip Home…but again, it probably wouldn’t hurt. I’m sure it contributed to my own appreciation of this book.

The memoir is divided into three sections. “Growing Up” covers Grogan’s childhood and high-school years. The youngest of four children, his family lived in a lakeside suburb near Pontiac, Michigan, in a house that his very devout Irish-Catholic parents chose for its proximity to the church. John and his siblings all attended the parish school, he and his brothers served as altar boys, and he even had an after-school job in the office of the church rectory. His parents were active in parish life, and the priests were frequent mealtime guests at the Grogan table. Aside from the church involvement, though, John’s childhood stories will probably ring bells with anyone who grew up in the suburbs during the 1960’s and ’70’s. The tone Grogan takes in sharing stories of boyhood adventures and stunts reminded me a bit of Jean Shepherd’s in the tales that became A Christmas Story, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

John succeeded in convincing his parents to let him transfer to public school in the tenth grade. High school was where the seeds of his eventual career in journalism were planted, but it was also the time when he found himself beginning to shift away from his parents’ church. As he moves into young adulthood in the second section of the book, “Breaking Away,” he grows more comfortable with being less Catholic, except where his parents are concerned; he’s unable to be honest with them about his doubts, even as they become even more fiercely Catholic with age. The strain becomes impossible to ignore once John and his future (non-Catholic) wife, Jenny, move in together before they’re even engaged, and he can’t keep that fact from his father and mother. As John and Jenny eventually marry and start a family of their own, he and his parents start realizing that their relationship is defined by certain “safe” topics and others that they have an unspoken agreement to avoid. The last portion of the book, “Coming Home,” finds some of those walls breaking down again as the senior Grogans become incapacitated with age, and there are things that have to be talked about before time runs out – and those things include faith and prayer.

John Grogan is a born storyteller with a conversational writing style, and I found myself laughing out loud in numerous places while reading The Longest Trip Home, particularly during the first two sections. The last section of the book is more reflective and emotional, and readers with aging parents may feel it keenly.

Grogan’s issues with the Catholic Church particularly resonated with me, because I have similar ones of my own. He seems to have made some peace with being a “nonpracticing Catholic,” one who doesn’t participate at all because there are aspects of the faith that he can’t believe in, and yet continuing to identify himself as “Catholic” because of his upbringing. (I definitely relate to that – the stuff sticks.) He and his wife believe they can raise ethical, moral children outside of a religious framework, and are making their best effort to do so; I agree that it’s possible. He comes to respect what his parents’ faith, and their practice of it, means to them, even if he can’t embrace it the way they do. I think anyone who questions the religion they grew up with can relate to this – Catholics in particular, but the generalities may strike a chord for those of other faiths as well. Grogan doesn’t take on big philosophical questions here; he’s strictly recounting his personal experiences, but sometimes that can be equally thought-provoking.

I plan to share The Longest Trip Home with my sister and my husband – both raised Catholic, one still practicing, one not – and I’ll be interested in their impressions. I also think it will keep them reading, and make them laugh.

Other stops on this TLC Book Tour:
Monday, October 19th: BookNAround
Wednesday, October 21st: The Novel Book Worm
Monday, October 26th: Book Club Classics
Tuesday, October 27th: Readaholic
Wednesday, October 28th: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books
Tuesday, November 3rd: Bookstack
Wednesday, November 4th: The Girl from the Ghetto
Thursday, November 5th: The Book Zombie
Thursday, November 12th: Cozy Little House
Tuesday, November 17th: Starting Fresh

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6 comments

  1. I love a good memoir, so I'll put this on my list. I'm glad this one has humor and a conversational style, and the subject matter sounds interesting to me 🙂

  2. Great review. I have not grown up in a practicing family, so I know exactly what you mean. All my family (both close and periphery) are non-practicing protestants, and that goes at least 3 or 4 generations back – but almost all children are babtized, many are married in the church etc so we are not exactly godless, but we never practiced and we seldom go to chuch, unless we are forced (babtism, wedding, funeral). That might come off as hypocritical, and in a way, I guess it actually is.

  3. I loved this book and literally sobbed at the end of it. I just brought so many emotions to the surface for me since my parents are elderly. Great review.

  4. I'll be interested to see where Grogan's writing takes him, since he's obviously talented.

    I'm so glad you liked the book! It certainly sounds like most people could relate to *something* in the book. In my opinion, that, in itself, is a gift!

    Thanks for being on this tour, Florinda!

  5. Louise – Neither of my marriages has been in church, but my second was officiated by a non-denominational minister.

    I know a lot of people who go to church semi-regularly and pick and choose what teachings to follow – and I've done the same myself – so I kind of admire Grogan's non-"cafeteria" stance.

    Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I remember how much you liked it, and that was one of the reasons I've wanted to read it!

    Trish – He was a pretty successful journalist since well before he started writing books, so I think he's doing OK :-).

    Thanks for the chance to be on the tour! I seem to get more than I expect out of John Grogan's books, and I really like that.