The Longest Trip Home Review

     The title of the memoir that I read is called The Longest Trip Home by John Grogan. This title was chosen because at the end, John returns to his home, waiting to see his father who has just died. In his trip home, he thinks how it would be to him to see somebody who has been with him all his life, leaving forever

     This book is about a boy named John who lives with his parents and his 3 siblings in the city of Detroit. They live in a suburb made up by mostly Christian families, but this family was the most religious and therefore, the most strict. His parents are a little old and they have brought with them many religious customs, like going to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec, and praying her on their knees. But as they were growing up, their attitude towards their religion started to change. John started adapting some negative habits and changes in his life, which soon would make his life worst.

     As he kept growing,he started trying different things, like smoking, drinking, and even planting his own drugs. He first started with smoking cigarettes with his best friend in a tree, at the age of ten. Then he became an altar boy to drink the wine that the Father left after the mass. After that he started to cultivate his own marijuana plant in his room, which he later got caught by his father. All of these were supposed to be a mortal sin, as he describes them. Then he goes to college where he got serious about academics. He spent 3 years of his life in the Central Michigan University. After that he went to back home, to see that his father had died.

     The memoirist came to know about himself that family and religion are very important things in life and they should not be ignored in the way that he did. He realizes at the end that he shouldn't have started with all the habits to look cool at the first place, and he should have focused more in his religions and family. My thoughts about this book is that it was a very interesting lecture. I was surprised that in a very young age, John started drinking and smoking. I think that all these bad things that he got used to do were not worth to do because later when he was not with his friends who smoked, he is not going to be well seen anymore.

     This memoir is organized in vignettes; it is a long narrative and it tells itself between chapters. The line that I like the most was "The only expectations I had to meet now were my own". I liked this line because it shows that he's independent, alone, and nobody to help him in his new life. This line was when John returned to his home to see that his father had just died. That explains why he says he's now alone in his new life without his father.

     I like this book becuase I can connect with the character a lot. He lives some experiences that make his life worst like smoking and drinking, and stops paying attention to his religion. The character is also a teenager in the first part, and I can tell that many of things he does are very common in teens these days. I really enjoyed and recommend this book.