The long take is a book based on its form.Instead of written in prose,Robin Robertson,who is a poer uses verse to bring to the reader the experiences of Walker,a World War 2 veteran.
The writer explores many differet themes while through verse follows the wanderings of the main character through 3 different big cities,New York,Los Angeles and San Francisco.The city is an important landamark in American history and especially cold war period where the expansion of the metropolis is clear try to save the american dream.The story line intergrates the character's expierences during war.The writer juxtaposes the war with dark period that followed the war.The alienation,the racial discrimination and the paranoia of the cold war is represented through the character's psyche.He is trying to cope with all his memories alienated from his home,even alienated from his own self.This sense of the other through the history of the big cities and the parallel storyline from the battlefield.
The authos except for verse is intergating pictures in the story line to emphasize the alienation and the expansion of the American city.Americans try to recover from a war that cost them much,live through cold war and the paranoic witch hunt during McCarthy years.
All in all,a lovely read.The book was shortlisted foor the Man booker in 2018 and frankly i was suprised it did not win.