Simply lovely. And funny! So Irish. So good. Read it. ( )

Basically, this book is too long for what it is. Parts I liked but I kept expecting it to go somewhere and it never did. But, it was charming enough that I finished it. ( )

Long Time, No See by Dermot Healy seems to be the story of a teenage boy's life, in all the mundane detail: his eccentric great-uncle, the errands he runs for the neighbours, his sort-of girlfriend. It's an Early Reviewer book and many of the other reviews say that after a slow start it picks up and starts to draw you in. I gave it 150 pages and it had not done so. ( )

This book took me a little time to get into. I kept thinking, "I'll give it 100 pages", and I'm glad I did because slowly I found myself being immersed in the world of Psyche (or Philip as he properly known). The book is mainly dialogue, but you can feel the irishness oozing out of the writing. The story is touching, yet funny at times, and the characters were brilliantly written. Quite emotional really. ( )

I think, perhaps, that you have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy 'Long time, no see', and I just wasn't. I don't want to say it was a bad book, because I genuinely don't think it is. In fact, there is much to admire in Healy's prose, including a very sound ear for dialogue, in my opinion, but I just didn't seem to have the time, ever, to really get my teeth into the narrative. Because of this, I didn't feel as if I really cared about the characters, and I wasn't as satisfied, when I had finished reading, as I might have been.

I would definitely say this is a book that would be made more enjoyable if you really have the time on your hands to savour the prose.