3.5
The Longest Way Home
ByPublisher Description
“A soulful and searching book. Vibrant and elegant…McCarthy’s prose shines with intelligence and intimacy. One feels pulled along…the book gaining momentum and meaning page by page” (Cheryl Strayed, The New York Times Book Review).
With absorbing honesty and an irrepressible taste for adventure, award-winning travel writer and actor Andrew McCarthy takes us on a deeply personal journey played out amid some of the world’s most evocative locales. Unable to commit to his fiancée of nearly four years—and with no clear understanding of what’s holding him back—McCarthy finds himself at a crossroads, plagued by doubts that have clung to him for a lifetime. Though he ventures from the treacherous slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro to an Amazonian riverboat and the dense Costa Rican rain forests, McCarthy’s real journey is one of the spirit. Disarmingly likable, McCarthy isn’t afraid to bare his soul on the page, and what emerges is an intimate memoir of self-discovery and an unforgettable love song to the woman who would be his wife.
With absorbing honesty and an irrepressible taste for adventure, award-winning travel writer and actor Andrew McCarthy takes us on a deeply personal journey played out amid some of the world’s most evocative locales. Unable to commit to his fiancée of nearly four years—and with no clear understanding of what’s holding him back—McCarthy finds himself at a crossroads, plagued by doubts that have clung to him for a lifetime. Though he ventures from the treacherous slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro to an Amazonian riverboat and the dense Costa Rican rain forests, McCarthy’s real journey is one of the spirit. Disarmingly likable, McCarthy isn’t afraid to bare his soul on the page, and what emerges is an intimate memoir of self-discovery and an unforgettable love song to the woman who would be his wife.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Longest Way Home Reviews
3.5
“I wasn't aware of Andrew McCarthy as anything but an actor so it was surprising to know he wrote "Brat", another book I have on hold, but even more to see he had written more books, and a travel writer for National Geographic of all things, so I wasn't sure what to expect.
This book was smart, personal, inquiring, and a reflection of him, the person, not the actor although he briefly does talk about it. I feel that through writing, he's able to drop that persona, and be the almost seemingly awkward man who's finding his footing in life. The book title is apt as every chapter puts miles between him and his life, his family, his persona of brat fame, and forces him to accept the unexpected, the nature of travel, the moments of serendipitous fortune that can occur without realization and in doing so maybe find a way to use it for his gain in life.
I went in thinking this might be a straight memoir and was pleasantly surprised that it started that way before getting travel stories, reflection, smart introspection, and a lot of honesty of himself interwoven in a way that feels inherently his. I'm tempted to go and read some of his travel pieces but even I know I will find them to be rich in detail, colorful, and atmospheric in nature.”
“I reread this book every few years and love it just the same. It's like visiting an old friend and rehashing the same stories, but always getting something new from it.
I read a quote once, and I had to look it up again to put it here:
"The best moments in reading are when you come across something- a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things- which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else. A person you have never met, someone even who is long dead, and it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours." Alan Bennett
That is how I felt while reading McCarthy's The Longest Way Home.
I don't know why I picked up this book. Maybe it was the idea of knowing more about the man behind the movies I'd watched and loved as a teenager. Maybe it was having read (and enjoyed) an article he once wrote about "The Magic Road" in Ireland. Maybe it was the day after St. Patrick's day and this book sat on the Irish Culture appreciation rack. I don't know. But I picked up this book and I am so grateful I did.
I connected with him on his journeys, I felt myself nodding my head and thinking "yes, oh yes" when he'd comment on an emotion or feature or just the way the wind felt. It was a strange feeling.
I've never met him, I've never gone to the Amazon or Africa or even Ireland and yet, with his fluid light descriptions, I felt I was there.
I also felt somewhat embarrassed at the personal side of the story (and it is the reason I rarely read memoirs or autobiographies). I felt I was peering through the window of someone's house. Even if he wrote it, to be shared, it was so personal, and sometimes so intimate, it was shocking. But I will also admit to feeling much of the same feelings as he went along. Much of his thoughts on life and the way he lived it leading up until his wedding, sat with me.
I really, really enjoyed this book. His prose flow, they create a picture, an image, a mental film. His descriptions are short but sweet and his travels were exciting and heartrending. Many times, it had me wishing I could hop a plane the next day and see what he'd seen. And after reading, I have added a few new places to my list of places I'd like to travel.
The connection you have with a book and through the book with an author is always different. Sometimes you just enjoy the story. Sometimes you feel as if you're in the story. Sometimes you feel as if the author is speaking directly to you. Rarely, you feel as if you could have written exactly the same thing, felt exactly the same thing. It is a connection that doesn't come often enough and is riveting when it does.”
About Andrew McCarthy
Since starring in movies like Pretty in Pink, St Elmo’s Fire, and Less Than Zero, Andrew McCarthy has become a director, an award-winning travel writer, and a bestselling author. He has directed more than eighty hours of television, including Orange Is the New Black, The Blacklist, Gossip Girl, and many others. For a dozen years he served as editor at large at National Geographic Traveler and his award-winning travel writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Atlantic and TIME. He is the author of The Longest Way Home, Just Fly Away, and most recently a memoir, Brat, all New York Times bestsellers.
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