The Long Take - BookWyrm

No cover — Robin Robertson: The Long Take (2019, Picador)

English language

Published Sept. 10, 2019 by Picador.

ISBN:: 978-1-5098-8625-8

(2 reviews)

Walker, a young Canadian recently demobilised after war and his active service in the Normandy landings and subsequent European operations. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and unable to face a return to his family home in rural Nova Scotia, he goes in search of freedom, change, anonymity and repair. We follow Walker through a sequence of poems as he moves through post-war American cities of New York, Los Angles and San Francisco.

2 editions

Adrián Astur Álvarez reviewed Long Take by Robin Robertson

Review of 'Long Take' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

In a poetry-fiction hybrid form Robertson takes us through the lost wandering of a vet traumatized by his experiences during D-Day. The narrative is scumy and violent and bleak. It is about a hopeless country deteriorating in parallel with the protagonist's interior. It is about a country made up of outsiders and the lost cause of any war. The subtitle is A Way to Lose More Slowly and that feels right. Perhaps the femme fatale was the righteous cause of the war.

I appreciate the beauty here but I don't welcome the pessimism. I had to really concentrate to get through to the last page. Maybe that's just me burnt out on America lately.

Marcus Low reviewed Long Take by Robin Robertson

Review of 'Long Take' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

Very ambitious - most of it is written as poetry. Bleak. Not everything works, but enough does. Some beautiful lines. Some similarities with McCarthy.