Overview

A classic road trip memoir about love, family, and surprisingly conversational wildlife. In 2019, artist Jon Claytor said good-bye to the Maritimes and hit the road. His destination: an artist's residency in Prince Rupert, where he planned to work on a graphic novel about his eight-week journey across Canada. But this story, like most, isn't about the destination. When Jon sets out, he's less than two years sober, he's recently broken up with his girlfriend, and his mother has just revealed a startling family secret. As Jon drives, he makes frequent stops to visit exes and children, old friends and new, and attends meetings to support his sobriety. He sorts through memories of his past, reconciling them with his present-and makes amends, seeks wisdom from wildlife, and learns the value of getting lost along the way. In Take the Long Way Home, Claytor explores alcoholism, love, and family through heart-rending vignettes and expressive linework. This is the story of a man who unpacks a difficult past, only to discover that even at his lowest point, he was never truly alone.

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9781772620702

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Reviews

On his watercolour collection Take My Breath Away: 'Take my Breath Away' is an embrace of the entirety of the human experience; it's a celebration of love with all its cracks and bruises.--Deanna Musgrave for The East Mag. On his Toronto exhibition, Until the Break of Day: There is a cinematic quality to his work, a fascination with character and stillness that's alive with ambiguity. --BlogTO

On his watercolour collection Take My Breath Away: 'Take my Breath Away' is an embrace of the entirety of the human experience; it's a celebration of love with all its cracks and bruises.-Deanna Musgrave for The East Mag. On his Toronto exhibition, Until the Break of Day: There is a cinematic quality to his work, a fascination with character and stillness that's alive with ambiguity. -BlogTO

Jon is always standing at the edge of a cliff, watching the waterfall plummet down and considering a leap. When he keeps on not leaping, keeps stepping safely onward, across Canada and back and always deeper inward, I go with him. Jon gets totally transparent here, all the way open. Seemingly effortless drawings, gestural and accurate, bring forth the way a friend or an animal really would eye you with an X-ray clarity, articulating the big dire questions in the middle of life. This book is beautiful and real and nail-biting. The heroic little cup of black coffee tells all. - Phil Elverum, The Microphones

Author Information

Jon Claytor is a Maritime-based artist, painter, and writer. He is a co-founder of SappyFest, an independent music and arts festival and was a bartender and co-owner at Thunder & Lightning Ideas Ltd. in Sackville, New Brunswick. Jon is a father to five children and, for him, being a father is the biggest part of being an artist. Jon Claytor's work ranges from oil painting and watercolour to filmmaking, and he recently became a comic-writer. He worked with Ingram Gallery in Toronto and exhibited his paintings in Los Angeles. Jon holds an MFA from York University (2012), attended Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (1991), and holds a BFA Mount Allison University (1998).

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