Stack of Spines

John Grogan’s The Longest Trip Home is an absolutely beautiful love letter to his parents.  Some authors have a gift for words, others suspenseful plots, but I think John Grogan’s is for comedic and poignant storytelling.

As with any author who writes more than one memoir, I was initially concerned that there would be too much overlap with his previous bestseller, Marley and Me.  There is a nicely interwoven passage where you see the other side of his life as he was living with the world’s worst dog, but there was no repetitive information.

I got this book as an audio from the library and it was narrated by Grogan himself.  His tone and cadence on the last CD was remarkable and I absolutely felt like I was there with him in his discussions with his father.  I could see his lips quivering and the lump in his throat building.  Listening to Grogan reading his own words through the ending was one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had with an audio book.

Grogan describes his idyllic childhood in Michigan as he experiences many run-ins with the nuns, his brothers and friends, and the “old man” in the neighborhood and tells his version of the events with such comedic timing I was often left in stitches.  Though he disagrees fundamentally with his parents and their beliefs as devout Catholics, he explains his struggles and personal choices as he grows up and marries and eventually becomes his own man and comes to terms with his own beliefs.  Grogan’s story is a classic coming of age one with the entertaining twists that only John Grogan can provide.  I implore anyone who disagrees with their parents on political or social matters to read The Longest Trip Home.