The Longest Trip Home
A Memoir
by John Grogan

List Price: $14.99
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780061713309
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks

Finding your place in the world can be the longest trip home . . . In his debut bestseller, Marley & Me, John Grogan showed how a dog can become an extraordinary presence in the life of one family. Now, in his highly anticipated follow-up, Grogan again works his magic, bringing us the story of what came first.

Before there was Marley, there was a gleefully mischievous boy growing up in a devout Catholic home outside Detroit in the 1960s and '70s. Despite his loving parents' best efforts, John's attempts to meet their expectations failed spectacularly. Whether it was his disastrous first confession, the use of his hobby telescope to take in the bronzed Mrs. Selahowski sunbathing next door, the purloined swigs of sacramental wine, or, as he got older, the fumbled attempts to sneak contraband past his father and score with girls beneath his mother's vigilant radar, John was figuring out that the faith and fervor that came so effortlessly to his parents somehow had eluded him.

And then one day, a strong-willed young woman named Jenny walked into his life. As their love grew, John began the painful, funny, and poignant journey into adulthood --- away from his parents' orbit and into a life of his own. It would take a fateful call and the onset of illness to lead him on the final leg of his journey --- the trip home again.

The Longest Trip Home is a book for any son or daughter who has sought to forge an identity at odds with their parents', and for every parent who has struggled to understand the values of their children. It is a book about mortality and grace, spirit and faith, and the powerful love of family. With his trademark blend of humor and pathos that made Marley & Me beloved by millions, John Grogan traces the universal journey each of us must take to find our unique place in the world.

Filled with revelation and laugh-out-loud humor, The Longest Trip Home will capture your heart --- but mostly it will make you want to reach out to those you love.

*If your book club is reading The Longest Trip Home and you are interested in setting up a live phone chat with the author, click here for more information.

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1. John Grogan's parents were devout Catholics. How did their faith impact John? How did his struggle with his parents' Catholicism shape his way of dealing with life --- and death, most notably when his father was dying?

2. What kind of household were you raised in? How did your parents' faith --- or lack of it --- influence your life?

3. Discuss John's relationship with his parents. Could you have been as accepting as his parents were during his adolescence? If you are a parent, talk about your relationship with your own children. If not, what kind of parent do you think you'd be?

4. What is the role of parents in children's lives? Do you think this role has changed from what it was in the 1960s and 1970s when John Grogan was a boy?

5. In your opinion, what were the most important lessons John learned from his parents?

6. Grogan had to separate from his parents to find his way back to them and back home. Do you think his is a common experience?

7. What role did meeting Jenny play in John's transformation? How did John and Jenny's relationship compare to that of John's parents?

8. Becoming a parent himself was a motivating element in his journey. Can someone truly understand their parents if they remain childless?

9. It is often said that we "become" our parents as we age. How does John resemble his parents? How have his experiences made him different?

10. At the end of the book, when John is visiting his mother, she tells him, "Once they leave home, that's it. They come back to visit, but it's never the same." John wants to protest but acknowledges that she is right. Do you agree? Why is it "never the same?"

11. Doris Kearns Goodwin praises The Longest Trip Home: "Every now and then a memoir is so well written that readers are able to find elements of their own life story in the chronicle of the writer's life." Do you agree? If so, what elements of your own life did you discover while reading?

12. A baby boomer born into a solidly middle class Midwestern household, John Grogan came from a very traditional American family. How might his story compare to others from different backgrounds? Can someone from another background --- say the child of a single mother growing up in a large city --- relate to his story? Why or why not?

13. Talk about John at the various stages of his life. How are you similar and different from your younger self?

14. Did The Longest Trip Home affect the way you see your own childhood and family?

15. John Grogan writes openly and guilelessly about some very painful and deeply personal moments in his life. He also speaks freely of the mischievous and sometimes devious adolescent that he was. If you were to write your own memoir, how honest could you be? Do you think you could face and expose your weaknesses and strengths the way he did?

16. Do you think writers like John Grogan see the world differently, or more clearly, than other people?

17. John meets a Catholic priest who tells him he "was a fan of what I did for a living, of using words to reach out to a larger community. As he put it in one e-mail, ‘Just remember: Jesus's favorite and most frequent way of teaching was telling stories. Is it any surprise that as things have come and gone with the passage of time, storytelling remains? It is part and parcel of what makes us human --- and puts us in touch with our humanity.' He called my writing my ‘ministry' and added, ‘In your own way John, you are doing God's work.'" What do you think about this?

18. In his memoir, John Grogan touches on the themes of morality and grace, spirit and faith, and the powerful love of family. How are these demonstrated? Give some examples of each.

19. Speaking of the themes above, how does memoir differ from fiction in conveying universal truths about the human condition? Do you think the message is stronger or more indelible when it is transmitted through a memoir rather than a novel?

20. If you've read John Grogan's previous book, Marley & Me, how does it compare with The Longest Trip Home? Are the tales similar? Do you see a connection between the two?

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"As he did in Marley, Grogan makes readers feel they have a seat at the family dinner table. He’s now a nonpracticing Catholic, but here-to wonderful effect-he confesses all."

— People

"Genuinely heartending... Grogan invests these events with deeply felt humanity and pathos."

— Janet Maslin, New York Times

"As he did in Marley, Grogan makes readers feel they have a seat at the family dinner table. He’s now a nonpracticing Catholic, but here --- to wonderful effect --- he confesses all."

— Teen People Book Club

"Grogan’s memoir of his journey for identity is akin to Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance."

— Library Journal