If there was a book on the 2018 Man Booker shortlist that would have never crossed my radar, it was The Long Take. I've never been partial to poetry--it is a form that has always eluded me--but was willing to test the waters with this narrative poem.

Unfortunately, I still don't have much kind to say about the medium despite some powerful lines here and there from Robertson. The language and formatting of passages here conveys a story in a truncated fashion that, to me, never felt worth the trouble. By the time I finished the book, about a WWII veteran with PTSD who roams the US, I didn't feel like being poetry added anything to my experience. Instead, I felt like I was attending a stuffy dinner where all topics of conversation were above my level of understanding.

Ah well, at least it was short. I'll be sure to see what some of the more poetry-adept have to say about the book!