The Long Take
Book description
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2018
Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2018
Winner of The Roehampton Poetry Prize 2018
Winner of the 2019 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
'A beautiful, vigorous and achingly melancholy hymn to the common man that is as unexpected as it is daring.' --John…
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Long Take as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Robin Robertson’s noir narrative The Long Take might seem like an unusual choice for this list.
Essentially a long noir poem, The Long Take concerns Walker, a Canadian veteran of D-Day with acute PTSD who finds life unraveling in the urban landscapes he inhabits after the war.
With a poet’s precision, Robertson follows Walker as he moves from city to city, taking it all in. Homelessness, crime, race—nothing is spared.
Why, you’d think you were in a 40s film noir, reading about it all, and then you find Walker on the streets of LA in 1948 seeing some of those…
From Ward's list on WWII era reads no crime fiction fan should miss.
Of course, the guilt that exists after wars isn’t relegated to those who commit horrific crimes. It exists on the level of the individual, too, one who’s asked to take part in violence, a changing act, and who then must go back to wherever they have left. Robertson’s The Long Take is only one (particularly good) example of this type of narrative, set in post-war San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. It’s a gorgeous book and feels utterly coherent.
From Adin's list on people and societies grapple with the end of wars.
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