As much as we’d like to blame life, chance, or other people about the opportunities we don’t get and the risks we don’t take, ultimately, we tend to get in our own way. Regrets and what if’s will follow any big decision we make. But sometimes, we get to revisit those choices and make different decisions down the road. This is exactly what happens in Christopher Tait’s coming of age novel, Take the Long Way. Below is my review of Tait’s novel along with an interview with the author about his writing process and the messages behind Take the Long Way.
Take the Long Way plot summary
On the day before he’s scheduled to leave for college, Ethan Hudson takes his father’s Ford Mustang convertible out for a drive and ends up in a small town in New Jersey. There, he meets high school student Sally Buchanan, and the two spend all day and night together. The next morning, they part ways. Ethan doesn’t see her again for 20 years when an old classmate offers to track her down. The two meet again at a very different stage of life and spend another day together. This time, Ethan is determined to find a way to make things work with Sally, despite their very different lifestyles.
The story
Take The Long Way can be compared to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off meets Serendipity. Set in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area in 1996, there is a nostalgic feel to older readers who have grown up in this era. Ethan is about eight years older than me so while he was taking his fictional joy ride, I was playing in the woods with my friends. But Tait paints a vivid landscape of the setting, tone, and personalities of the characters, primarily Ethan and Sally.
The two spend a Hollywood perfect day together with the realism of real life. Unlike Ferris Bueller, they don’t sing in a parade or have a villainous principal to dodge. The only real risk is keeping the car in one piece and returning it before Ethan’s dad returns home from a work trip. This allows the plot to stay focused on the two characters getting to know each other, and as they do, the growing conflict becomes the difficulty in saying goodbye when the time comes.
The characters
Ethan and Sally are the main focus of the story. We learn about their lives, families, and relationships through their conversations. The two are candid with each other immediately, likely due to the fact that Ethan is on a casual joyride and Sally is barefoot and riding a skateboard when they first meet.
As the two bond over music, movies, and their creative passions (he wants to be a writer, and she an artist), it brings out more candid, revealing topics. Neither have a particularly terrible home life, but they do have their share of family struggles that they are eager to escape from. They don’t sugarcoat life, nor are they pessimistic teens who make more out of things than they are. This makes them likable and interesting while still maintaining that youthful inexperience and uncertainty.
The settings
Tait sets his story in very realistic locations, even those he makes up. Anyone familiar with the Philadelphia and Jersey Shore area will easily be able to picture his settings in great detail.
He also makes use of 90’s culture, particularly its music, name dropping the albums, song titles, and band names of a huge portion of the alternative rock bands that I grew up listening to. Ethan and Sally create a Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist-style soundtrack to their day out. Music plays a large part of their second day together as well.
Later, when Ethan and Sally meet again as adults, they attend a Coldplay concert together. The ordinary yet accurate detail of what it’s like to attend a stadium concert is told in such clarity that it puts the reader right in the scene with them. It also makes you yearn for the return of live music in the midst of a global pandemic. Their music talk is just as passionate yet not as obsessive as when they were teens, illustrating how adulthood forces you to unconsciously prioritize and weed out certain passions as you age.
The dialogue
Ethan and Sally’s conversations are some of the most fun parts of the book to read. It’s an acceptable form of telling versus showing given their circumstances and helps the reader to learn about them as they learn about each other.
The dialogue isn’t always 100 percent realistic. Sometimes it feels like they are answering interview questions that weren’t asked. They also sometimes use a more sophisticated or formal vocabulary than the average teen, particularly such regular, down-to-earth teens.
Ethan’s first-person narration is acceptably a little more formal than his dialogue. However, there are a few grammatical mistakes throughout the narration, particularly in the multiple uses of “her and I,” which we all do in normal conversation but probably shouldn’t be present in the narration.
My recommendation
Take the Long Way was one of the most engaging books I’ve read in awhile. I loved following Ethan and Sally’s temporary escapes from reality. They weren’t particularly adventurous, but they were fun, real, and make me feel envious of their short-lived vacations and natural, fast-paced connection. I was also grateful to get to live vicariously through their story, which is what all great fiction should strive to do.
I recommend this book to both YA and adult readers who love unsappy romance, road trips, and have a soft spot for 90’s nostalgia, particularly music.
About the author and book
Author name/pen name: Christopher Tait
Author links (links will open in a new tab)
Book title: Take the Long Way
Genre: Adult Upmarket Literary Fiction
Take the Long Way book summary
A teenaged boy and girl meet and fall with each other during a long late-summer day in 1996 but can only spend 24-hours together because he is destined for college out of state the next day. Twenty years pass before they see each other again, and when they do, it takes a night of soul-searching and soul-bearing for both to figure out if they can finally have the relationship they couldn’t have when they were younger or if they are destined to only spend one more night together.
Book excerpt
That’s when I looked over and saw a girl riding a skateboard on the sidewalk, stopping at the corner right next to me. She looked around my age, maybe younger, with reddish brunette hair with streaks of purple in it. She wore a light blue tank top with black bra straps sticking out from underneath. She also wore ripped denim shorts that stopped just above her knees. She wore a black helmet and blue elbow pads and knee pads, along with a well-worn dark blue Jansport backpack strapped around her shoulders.
She was also barefoot, a beaded anklet around her left ankle and a shiny toe ring on the second toe of her right foot. Her toenails had fading patches of the red polish she’d put on at some point but hadn’t retouched. She rested one foot on her board and another on the sidewalk. She pulled a water bottle out of her backpack and took a long swig from it.
Then she turned and looked at me. I turned away quickly, hoping she hadn’t noticed me staring, and at first, I thought I’d gotten away with it, but then she jumped down onto the street and approached my passenger side door.
“Hey man,” she said, her voice deeper than your average teenage girl’s but not husky. “Cool car. Is it yours?”
I thought about telling her that it was a graduation present from my parents, but I had a feeling she’d see right through it, so I said, “Nah, it’s my father’s. I’m borrowing it for the day.”
“Oh yeah? Does he know?”
“No.”
She smiled and bopped her head. “Springin’ the Mustang loose without the parental units knowing. Cool. This is a ’67, right?”
Talking Shop
What do you want readers to take away from your books?
I want people to take away the sense of what happens when two people connect deeply, how incredible it can be, and how that connection can never fully go away even if they’ve been apart for years.
Name a fact or detail about your story that readers will never know is there.
Shore Haven, NJ is largely inspired by Ocean City, NJ, where I spent many summer vacations.
What is a fun or strange source of inspiration that ended up in your book?
In the second half of the novel, Ethan and Sally attend Coldplay’s 2016 concert at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. My wife and I attended that same show, and Ethan and Sally sit in our seats. I even wrote in the couple with two small children that sat next to us.
How long did it take to write your book from the day you got the idea to write it to the day you published it?
It took two-and-a-half years from when I started writing to the self-publishing day. The novel originally had a different structure—several stories following a male character having one-day-only relationships with different women—but then the Ethan-and-Sally sections became long enough for its own novel so the additional sections were either scrapped or turned into stand-alone short stories.
How long have you considered yourself a writer? Did you have any formal training, or is it something you learned as you went?
I’ve been writing ever since I learned how to write. I took a creative writing class in college and have had informal instruction from other teachers, advisors, and writers along the way, but the majority of what I’ve learned has come from reading what other authors have written. I drew comic books as a kid, wrote screenplays as a teenager (and still do, though to a lesser degree now), and made student films in college (and recently started doing it again). But prose has always been my first love, and I’ve never stopped writing short stories and attempting novels.
If you don’t make a living exclusively writing, what is your day job? How, in any way, does it relate to your life as a writer?
I work as a Document Control Specialist for an applicant screening firm. My writing ability has helped me develop procedures and work instructions for use within the company as well as proofread other documents given to me to ensure accuracy and quality control.
Who is on your Mt. Rushmore of great writers?
S.E. Hinton, Anne Rice, Stephen King, and Nick Hornby.
What were your expectations for writing and publishing your first book? Have they changed since then?
I thought self-publishing would make it easier to sell my novel to a major publisher, but I’ve since learned of the bias that some publishers and agents have against self-publishing, so I know it’s a long shot to ever sign with an agent/publisher, which is why I’m content with self-publishing and being my own agent.
Do you have a writing ritual, odd habits, or superstitions?
I save continuously as I’m writing. I’ve lost whole nights of writing because my computer suddenly lost power or there was a glitch and MS Word went down, so I’m forever backing up my files as I’m going. I also used to like writing to music, but now I find that too distracting and need silence in order to focus.
How well do you handle criticism, either while writing, editing, or reviews? Do you ever use that criticism to change your story?
As long as the criticism is constructive and helpful in some way, I can handle it. If someone is merely looking to troll or insult me, then I don’t give them the time of day.
What is the most fun part about writing? The most difficult?
The most fun part is bringing new characters to life and finding little bits of myself sprinkled throughout the story. The most difficult is actually seeing a creative project through to the end, since it can be really easy to move on from something when it’s not complete and never finish it.
What skills have you acquired or information have you learned from writing?
Since this book and a previous book I wrote both take place in the mid-90s, I’m well versed in the pop culture and fashion trends of that time period.
Did you consult with any professionals or people who lived through a particular event to help you craft your story?
Aside from researching information on 1967 Ford Mustang convertibles through Google, I mostly drew on personal experience.
What is your most stereotypical writer trait? Your least stereotypical?
Most stereotypical: My writing desk tends to be messy and cluttered with papers and other junk.
Least stereotypical: I enjoy interviews and talking about where my ideas come from.
“What If” Scenarios
If your book ever becomes a movie and you get final say over the cast, which actors would you hire to play your characters?
For the 1996 section, I’d go with Timothée Chalamet as Ethan and Kaitlyn Dever as Sally, and for the 2016 section, Jake Gyllenhaal as Ethan and Natalie Portman as Sally.
If you could have one person that you admire, living or dead, read your book, who would it be?
Richard Linklater, since his Before trilogy—Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight—were part of the inspiration for this novel.
A wealthy reader buys 100 copies of your book and tells you to hand them out to anyone you wish. Who do you give them to?
Students.
You are transported into your book for one day. What role do you play? How do you alter the events of the story?
I would play Ethan and I wouldn’t change a thing.
You’re given $10,000 to spend on marketing for your book. How do you spend it?
Commercials with actors playing out scenes from the book. Compiling a soundtrack album, since music plays a key role in the novel.
You have the means to hire a full time assistant to help you with your writing. What tasks do you give them to do?
Research certain aspects of a story that I may not know everything about. Check for accuracy if I’m using any historical dates or events. Also type in or scan anything that I don’t already have saved in my files.
You have final say over who reads the audio book version of your story. Who do you choose?
Ethan Hawke.
What famous artist or photographer would you want to create or capture your book cover image?
Anton Corbijn. His work with U2 is amazing.
Your story gets picked up by a streaming service to make into a series. What service would you want it to be, and would you want them to follow your story closely, or would you rather see what directions they take it in?
Netflix. I’d want them to follow it as closely as they can.
Just for Fun
Your trademark feature.
I’ve worn glasses since I was at least 5 years old, and they feel so much a part of me that I actually feel naked without them. I’ve refused switching to contacts a number of times for that very reason.
One year of your life you’d like to relive or do over.
1996 for all the good times I had that year; 2001 to fix some of the mistakes I made in that time.
A movie or a piece of music that changed your life.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton made me want to be a writer. Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction cemented my love of film as an art form. “Achtung Baby” by U2 expanded for me what music was capable of doing.
Favorite place you’ve visited/place you want to visit.
The weekend my wife and I spent in Gettysburg, PA—touring the battlefield and seeing all the sights—was one of the best vacations I ever had. I really want to visit the UK someday.
Food you’d like to win a lifetime supply of.
Tacos.
A book that you recommend everyone reads.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
The topic you can’t shut up about and the topic you wish everyone would shut up about.
People know more about my greyhounds than they do about me. I wish everyone would cool it on the political rhetoric, no matter what side they’re on.
Celebrity you’d want to be friends with.
Bono.
A talent you have and a talent you wish you had.
I played drums for several years and was even in a band (briefly). I wish I was more mechanically inclined but my DIY skills are mediocre at best.
When time travel is achieved, do you go forward or backward?
Backward. I agree with Doc Brown that you shouldn’t know too much about your future.
Buy it!
Buy a copy of Something Happened: A Collection by Christopher Tait here, and help support local bookstores! This is an affiliate link, and I will earn a commission on any sales.
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It’s really cool that the author took aspects of his life and put them into the story, especially the settings.