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.

Jon Claytor is a Halifax-based artist, painter, and writer. He is a co-founder of SappyFest independent music and arts festival and opened Thunder & Lightning Ideas Ltd. in Sackville, New Brunswick in 2013. 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 digital comic-writer. He worked with Ingram Gallery in Toronto and exhibited his paintings in Los Angeles and Tel Aviv. 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).

His most recent publication is Skeleton Park People (2020) and The Long Way Home will be his second book.

Jon Claytor's profile page

"This deeply personal story of recovery pays tribute to the community of support found taking the long way home." - Publishers Weekly
"This is Claytor's homage to the ones who give us support when we are at our weakest, and I think it's a fine piece of artistic gratitude, an emotional road trip well worth taking." - Broken Pencil
"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