Take the Long Way Home
Take the Long Way Home
By: Rochelle Alers
“Fifty-eight years. That’s how long it had taken Claudia to find her way back home... But then she had to ask herself: where was home?”
Take the Long Way Home is a historical fiction/romance/coming-of-age story.
I read this book because I was intrigued by the title and the idea of a book spanning so much history through the eyes of one black woman.
Unfortunately, the book was highly sexual— not always in an erotic way— and after getting 25% of the way through I decided to just skim the rest. Because of that, I think my relationship with the history of racism hit different than it probably would have had I not been so frustrated with the sexual content.
I don’t care to read the biography of Claudia’s sex life. If Alers had written a book that focused on four impactful events over the course of Claudia’s life that corresponded to historical events instead of four impactful men, I probably would have been more interested.
[Several reviewers who received an advanced reader’s copy gave a bad review of the book because it didn’t include the last several chapters. My version was missing those as well, but I contacted someone who gave me the updated copy. My review is based on knowledge of the completed book. It was nice to have the last bits and epilogue to know how it ended up, but it also contained a few more sex scenes so it didn’t really redeem itself in the end.]
The Long Way Home
Although the book was not my cup of tea, I can appreciate a good title. That’s what brought me to this book in the first place.
The long way home at the beginning of the book was the literal path Claudia took after school where she encountered a boy who would essentially change the course of her life drastically and put her on the trajectory to become the successful and cultured woman she became, to meet the people she met, etc.
The long way home in the more abstract sense was her return to the US and a discussion on what her home really is. After losing most of her family, what was her home? She takes a hiatus from the US, a place of so much racism and heartache for Claudia, and her grandchildren is what ultimately brings her back.
Plot Summary
The book begins with our main character, Claudia Patterson, as an 83-year-old woman visiting her daughter in the U.S. and remembering how she had vowed never to return because “she’d believed the country of her birth had continually betrayed her race.”
But after Obama became president she had hope that her country had turned a corner.
As she arrives to the U.S. she reunites with Ashley Booth, a previous lover, and then begins reminiscing about the four men in her life that had a huge impact on her. Thus begins the flashback parts of the book divided according to man:
Denny Clark- 1952, Freedom, Mississippi
When Claudia is just 12 she comes across a white boy barely alive after being beaten and whipped. Her grandma and she secretly nurse him back to health. But Denny falls in love with Claudia (more like lust) and causes some problems for Claudia emotionally and physically.
“She’d just learned a hard lesson at an early age. She couldn’t trust White people.”
Robert Moore- 1958, Hampton University, Virginia and Freedom, Mississippi
After the events with Denny, Claudia is schooled by her aunt in another town, becomes fluent in several languages, and attends Hampton where she meets Robert and they get married. He is black and schools to be a lawyer fighting for civil rights through legislation. Claudia becomes an activist, but her role in signing up black voters puts a target on them and Robert pays the price.
“I know that violence begets violence, and, Claudia, I don’t want to be filled with so much hatred that I become like them.”
Ashley Booth- 1968, New York City
Still grieving the death of her husband, she meets Ashley, nicknamed the ‘Black Prince of Wall Street.’ With both parents being doctors, he has been part of the black elite in New York and introduces Claudia to that world and corporate connections. But Ashley has vowed never to marry and his lack of commitment to Claudia in their relationship pushes her to accept an international banking job based in Rome.
“Ashley Booth was the epitome of sartorial splendor from his barbered hair to the shine on his shoes.”
“Ashley couldn’t love me, Yvonne, because he is in love with himself.”
Giancarlo Fortenza- 1969, Paris and Rome
Claudia originally met Giancarlo when she was 18 and on a summer trip to Paris with her aunts as a graduation gift. They run into each other again in Rome when she moves there for work. Ashley was given an ultimatum and now Claudia is moving on to Giancarlo. She marries Giancarlo and is able to start a family and grow old together.
“She’d never been attracted to White men, but Claudia realized she would make an exception when it came to Giancarlo.”
Sexual Content
I usually just put this in a content advisory at the end of my reviews but because it was a major factor in my opinion of the book I’m giving it more space.
This book is either talking about racism and discrimination against black people or it’s talking about Claudia’s sex life. Those are pretty much the only two things.
As I mentioned, it’s not really written erotically most of the time. It’s not meant to be a spicy flowery romance book (except maybe a little bit?… I don’t know.) But in a lot of spots it’s more written matter-of-factly or clinically.
Her first period is described in detail. Her first sexual feelings are described. Private body parts are named anatomically a dozen times. The word ‘erection’ is used a dozen times. (I have a digital copy so I can search, I’m not sitting there tallying while I’m reading.)
It just felt like every character is concerned with sex: when they lost their virginity, being a mistress, wondering whether they should sleep together, actually sleeping together, taking the pill, etc.
I know my beliefs about sex being between a man and woman within the commitment of marriage are probably not the majority. I know many of you will disagree with me here, but there is more to life than sex. (And plenty more books to read than ones about sex).
This book, as it’s trying to portray sexual freedom, actually exposes a lot of the burdens, griefs, and consequences of ‘sexual freedom’
We are told: “Getting a girl pregnant before graduating had become Robert’s greatest fear—” Simple, Robert, don’t have sex until you’re married. It’s 100% in your control. Your greatest fear is now overcome. Live in fear no longer.
Claudia says: “I do think of myself as a modern woman, because I’m willing to engage in premarital sex, but I draw the line when it comes to shacking up with a man.” Willing to engage. That wording already shows a problem. Women feel like they must have sex early because they need to be as sexually free as men. How else will they find a man to stick around? And having sex with no strings attached? Not a thing. There’s always strings. Most of them probably emotional. We’re told that sex is meaningless, just a form of pleasure. That’s a lie. Sex always means something. Not ‘shacking up’ solves some problems but creates others.
When her intentionally unmarried, ‘sexually free’, aunt arrives in one of the scenes and is helped with her luggage by a married man whom she rode on the train with, we are reminded about her aunt’s “ethereal beauty” and: “no doubt the long-time married grandfather enjoyed every minute of sitting across from her during the long train ride from Paris to Rome.” Because even if people ARE happily married, even for years, they’re definitely having sexual thoughts of every attractive woman they are around and wish they had the sexual freedom to do something about it. Can’t married men be happily married and committed men without wandering eyes and wistful ponderings? Can’t they just ride a train and be helpful?!
Alers does write Claudia’s character to be a woman who desires to be married and have children so there’s not a completely anti-marriage thread in this book.
I just got so tired of all the talk and thoughts of sex or sexualized things. It didn’t feel like a nice historical fiction love story. It read like a tawdry feminist flyer.
I know when I read a book with romance that it’s most likely not going to fully align with my convictions (which is why I tend to avoid the romance genre altogether) and I can handle some of that, but it was just too overwhelming in this book to get past. And honestly, I think men will feel uncomfortable reading a lot of it.
Historical Context and Racism
I think following a black woman from the 50s to the present was an effective way to show the compounding effect that racism can have for many people.
She grows up with the Jim Crow laws. She lives through the death of Emmett Till. She lives through the Civil Rights movement headed by Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. and all the protests. She lives through the assassinations of JFK and King. It gave me a little different way of looking at racism for folks who have lived through all of that— one thing after another.
In some instances, it was hard to read this book as a white person. I felt myself getting defensive about some remarks and I had to check myself and see if it was legitimate or if I was taking a feeling had during a specific historical context and internalizing it as a widespread feeling today.
For example, in the chapters that take place in the 50s during the Jim Crow laws, the dialogue she has with her family and other black people is very anti-white. Saying they don’t trust white people, they don’t want to interact with white people, etc. These thoughts make more sense in the historical context of what they were experiencing between white people and black people generally speaking. But I can’t then say of today- see, black people hate white people.
Alers includes this interaction which was good, although I’m not sure if Claudia said no because she was only thinking of white people in Paris or if she thought there were good white people in the US too.
“Do you hate White people?” His question gave Claudia pause when she recalled those she’d met in Paris. “No. Not all White people are bad just like not all Black folks are bad.”
There were some things I wasn’t sure how to feel about. Here are a couple:
“she was ashamed of her White blood.”
“There was so much more she wanted and needed to know about the events that were deliberately excluded from textbooks— events that were certain to make the white race not only uncomfortable but also guilty that they had been complicit in the atrocities perpetrated by their brethren.”
This last part is what gives me the most pause. This is exemplary of Critical Race Theory. It says that all white people are guilty and should apologize for things other white people have done. But that is a problem. White people who are actually committing the crimes and saying the racist things is one thing. Those who stand by and do nothing in the presence of violence also have something they need to wrestle with, but years later and location removed, you can’t assign guilt to people who were not involved. I hate the way black people were treated and the racism that was and sometimes still is prevalent in our country. I’m more than sorry that any of it happened, but I am not at fault for it and an entire race or gender should not have to stand up and admit guilt for actions taken by other people.
Then there is this problematic, very feminist, statement Claudia makes:
“I’ve lived long enough to know that men regardless of their color or race will stick together to keep a woman regardless of her race in a subordinate position.”
That’s just not true, obviously. Even though Claudia wants to get married, the general vibe of this book is pretty negative towards males. And they’re basically all womanizers.
The only oppression happening to women in the United States today is sexual and goes hand-in-hand with the ‘sexual freedom’ everyone thinks they want.
All that to say, Claudia’s character went through a lot in her life. She says this about what has driven her to leave the US and become an activist:
“What I am is a fierce Black sister willing to cross an ocean to get what she has been denied in the country of her birth. And I’m tired, Ashley. Tired of watching the news and holding my breath because I’m waiting to hear about another assassination.”
“I have a right to be cynical, Giancarlo. I was exiled from my hometown at twelve, denied a position with a white bank because of my color; my life was threatened by a White man belonging to a terrorist group because of my voter registration activity, and warned by my Black boss to stop signing up people to vote because he feared his bank would be bombed.”
And you can’t really blame her.
Other Randos
Full disclosure: the version I was reading was an early copy of the book so things may have changed before it was actually published but there were also some writing things that distracted and frustrated me.
There were a lot of spelling and grammar errors. I believe these will be fixed. But there were also weird section breaks. There would be a character asking a question and then there’s space and a section break and then the text just continues right where it left off. I’m not sure the point of those.
There are a lot of deaths in this book, which is fine, but the way Alers writes them is so abrupt. Just out of nowhere in two sentences someone is dead and we kind of move on. There is no warning or lead up. And some of these are really important relationships to Claudia. Even her own husband’s death is like a paragraph.
There is some swearing but not as much as it could have been, but also there were a lot of n-words. They’re used in the context of the 50s when that’s how people would talk, but as a reader, I didn’t like having to read them.
It must have been difficult for Alers to write those sections. I wonder if we could still understand the emotion and gravity of the situations if she had opted to leave the n-words out? I don’t know. But familiarity takes the punch out of words and I wonder if it would have been better to write that someone used a slur instead of actually writing it out every time?
I liked the addition of a discussion guide at the end of the book with questions that can be used if you were to choose this for a book club.
Recommendation
This book had potential, but I don’t think I would recommend it to many people. The biography of Claudia’s sex life is not a good enough plot line.
There’s probably some historical value to reading it, but not enough for me to put up with the other stuff.
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
[Content Advisory: 12 f-words, 26 s-words, 22 n-words; forms of the word sex is used 40 times- see also sexual content section above; rape]
This book releases in October, 2023. You can pre-order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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