All Day Is A Long Time

by David Sanchez

For fans of Denis Johnson and Ocean Vuong: A captivating, searing, and ultimately redemptive debut novel about coming of age on Florida's drug-riddled Gulf Coast and the enigmatic connection between memory and self David has a mind that never stops running. He reads Dante and Moby Dick, he sinks into Hemingway and battles with Milton. But on Florida's Gulf Coast, one can slip into deep water unconsciously; at the age of fourteen, David runs away from home to pursue a girl and, on his journey, tries crack cocaine for the first time. He's hooked instantly. Over the course of the next decade, he fights his way out of jail and rehab, trying to make sense of the world around him--a sunken world where faith in anything is a privilege. He makes his way to a tenuous sobriety, but it isn't until he takes a literature class at a community college that something within him ignites. All Day is a Long Time is a spectacular, raw account of growing up and managing, against every expectation, to carve out a place for hope. We see what it means, and what it takes, to come back from a place of little control--to map ourselves on the world around, and beyond, us. David Sanchez's debut resounds with real force and demonstrates the redemptive power of the written word.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Addiction, Coming Of Age, Literary Fiction, Mental Health, American

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 18, 2022

Reviews

[Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. David Sanchez’s debut All Day Long Is a Long Time is the deeply intimate, gritty story of David on his long, winding path from addiction to sobriety. It feels personal because of the first person narration, and it feels true because the author walked some of this path, too. Veracity is a wonderful thing in fiction. My investment in David’s outcome never waned, as tenuous as it became.

Sanchez’s writing is the real star here. Lyrical but precise. Affective and intimate but with some boundaries, too. David lets the reader in but not too close. You always feel his vulnerability, though. This book goes deep into emotions with a story centered on David and his small inner circle. The plot isn’t the focus; the emotions and journey are.

There’s nothing better than reading a groundbreaking debut when you can feel the bright future ahead of a writer. I cannot wait to read the next story he shares with us. An author to watch.

I received a gifted copy.

Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winner of a Gold Medal in the 2022 Florida Book Awards.

Yowzah.

"And so, to fall prey to madness is to drive God mad. To live as I was, vibrating in a sleepless bender, was to be a source of extreme ecstasy and debilitating pain for God. I get the sense that people are the agents through which God becomes fallible, subject, as we are, to misinformation and destruction."

I would never have picked up this book on my own. No interest in drug recovery novels. I'm a historical fiction gal or nature lover. But having met the author during the award ceremony for the FBA and having the honor of sharing the stage with him, I did the courteous thing and bought the book.

What I would have missed if I had not done so.

Sanchez is now also nominated for a Young Lions Fiction Award (https://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/...). I am rooting heavily for him to be recognized all the way to winning this prestigious award. Sanchez has a brain that is stunning, brilliant, and able to sing the world in his own fallible but mature way. He weaves in science and philosophy in an organic and artful way, and his attention to the natural world satisfied my human heart.

4.5 stars. This is autofiction. So there is that. But if Sanchez can continue to hold his nose to the grindstone and find a new topic that holds his attention, and be able to empathize with his main character, he'll soar.

[Sarah Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely stunning. First and foremost, and above all else, Sanchez writes in a way that moves you, deeply and instinctually. There were times when reading this where I felt myself fall right into his stream of consciousness, my mind following the ebb and flows of his. The imagery created is stunning, vivid, and visceral. The recurring themes and memories in the jungle or bodies of water always took me to a different world. And, as a science lover, I appreciated just how much information was woven into this story about how the body works and different chemical processed. This book was truly beautiful, and an astounding debut work.

[Daniel Sheen · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK so this is the second debut author I'm supporting this year and I was so incredibly excited to read this book. Unfortunately, I think this book suffers from false advertising. It was sold to me (via the synopsis, multiple blurbs and author interviews) as a wild, brutal, poetic ride through extreme teenage drug addiction. It is none of those things. These things might all be true, technically, but it is written as an analytical, philosophical take on the subject. It felt cold and calculated, with little to no emotion, and I had real trouble empathising with the narrator. It felt as though it had been written "properly" whereas to me, this sort of story (especially if it's mainly true, as the author says) needs to be written in anything other than a "proper" fashion (see: A Million Little Pieces). Don't get me wrong it's VERY well written, it just did not connect with me emotionally. I don't want to get into the whole MFA argument here but I feel like this story suffered from that sort of environment. It's a shame, because there are some sentences which just blew me off my chair. So this is very confusing for me. And I don't get the other 5 star reviews on here. It is not intimate or moving or lyrical or brutal or wild. The life itself may have been, but the writing is not. There are certain moments that get into their stride and you can feel it start to take off, but then it never does. If you want a sobering, analytical, philosophical look at addiction, then this is the book for you. It's an interesting and well written book, but for me, personally, a disappointment. However, saying that, I feel like I can't give it less than three stars.

[Eric Mayhew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pg. 37-38 “In the night, I realized, not in any particular terms but wordlessly in my gut, just how pointless talking is. How it might be our most vain invention. Existing only to rend ourselves from the world, to call out our particularities and burdens, to push them out and pass them on to other people. Narcissistic and useless. Vain in both senses. A symptom of our most basic predicament, the dead-ended frustration of being animal plus something. Every word a plea to make it stop.”

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Immediately yes. 4.25

Yo David. When you’re ready to write that big third-person novel lurkin’ in you.. I’m in.

[Darryl Suite · Rating 4 out of 5]

So incredibly well-written. And told in an impressively unsentimental manner. There are moments so tender/beautiful/insightful it made me want to cry: the sunset, the shower, the pool, the diner, art class. Sometimes, I felt that this novel was a little too clinical/distant/abstract for this kind of story, but then other times, I felt this characteristic was actually its strength.

[Drea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. The writing is so full - electric and sobering. What a debut. I found myself holding my breath while reading at times - so absorbed and invested in the character as he tried and tried and tried. Highly recommend. Brilliant. Heartfelt thanks to Mariner / Harper for the advanced copy. Man, that was good.

[Remi Work · Rating 5 out of 5]

hi everyone this is the first real book ive read outside of book club since my youth. i really enjoyed it. it takes place in my homeland (south florida) and the main character was fascinating. are u supposed to say character when u talk about a book or is that a tv thing? feeling very proud of myself rn!!! yay!

[Oscreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was emotionally destroyed.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book! Brave, poetic, honest and enlightening. Puts the recovery narrative in a whole new territory. It’s also so well written I honestly can’t wait to read more David Sanchez. Highly recommend this one for its artistic integrity and honouring of the lives and time lost to drug use in our families and communities. It is also a first class rendering of scenery, environment and nature and really brings its Floridian setting alive.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books. I thought that the writing style was really captivating and it felt natural throughout the story. It read somewhat differently from a regular novel because it was almost like every chapter was a different story with a slightly different tone, but it flowed together naturally in a way that progressed the narrator's outlook. I also felt like its depictions of family were genuine, the stories weren't too far fetched so as to seem realistic, and the meanings drawn from the narrator were within scope of who he was. It also had some English class literary devices and structures I thought were cool to pick up on, like how the narrator went unnamed until he decided for himself who he wanted to be.

I can imagine that the depiction of addiction would be troubling to some readers. I, as someone who has not experienced addiction or am close to people who have, don't know the accuracy of the portrayal. But taken at least at surface level as I did, it made addiction feel far more human than statistics and caricatures so often presented. The narrator just felt like someone real which I felt made the book.

[Ady · Rating 4 out of 5]

The greatest things about this book were the writing style and the atmosphere. This writer is also skilled with character development, but the settings he puts his character in are real and palpable to the reader. I had a visceral reaction to certain scenes. The writing is both beautiful and gritty. It has a poetic feel to it, but it is not "overwrought" in the slightest. As a "quiet" book, this is more character driven than plot-driven. In fact, the whole synopsis that is provided for the book IS the plot, but that does not detract from the novel at all. To me, the first-person narrative and stream-of consciousness writing style made this book read like a personal journal of a teenage boy and the character growth is very apparent. It took a bit to adjust to the writing style for me personally, but it was a very enjoyable read. I could see this classified as a literary coming-of-age story and targeted to new adults. I am so grateful to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC e-book copy! I feel privileged to be such an early reviewer of a lovely book.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

a pretentious sad man uses way too many words to wax poetic about his pretentious sad man life. it might have been a compelling story if it didn't read like he just went down the list of literary devices from sophomore english class and try to jam them all in there. it's got all the conciseness and flow of a stranger twelve beers deep who's decided to regale you with their life story because you made the mistake of sitting next to them, with the pretentiousness and overuse of a thesaurus of a sixteen year old who just discovered Fight Club and needs to prove to the world how intellectual they are.

[Shauna Friesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me feel everything, including infuriated at how gorgeously and precisely this was written. I overlooked this at first because the subject matter did not initially interest me, but in the end I couldn't pass on the Ocean Vuong comparison and the Moby Dick references it promised.

It had everything that I look for in a book - prose that is almost like poetry, long, beautiful tangents about nature, and a character that over-obsesses with something to the point that it drives them mad (really, all my favorite books have these qualities lol).

I often read books solely for the prose and it was jawdropping, glittering and crystalline and swollen with vocabulary, so much it was almost tangible around me. There is so much power in language when it was wielded like this, treated as an art form with each word and metaphor chosen as deliberately as colors in a painting. It allows you to view the world through a brand new prism, see and feel things in a new way, almost live a whole other life.

Read a few reviews that said the main character (potenitally the author himself? not sure how autobiographical this is) was too unlikable - but although I've never been a drug addict I found so much of his story and feelings so viscerally, achingly relatable. I saw a lot of myself in him and I think I should definitely never do drugs. But getting a little too lost in books and imagination, paying too much attention to the point of over-fixation or none at all, just feeling very unsettled in life, restless, not sure why you're here but maybe it's ok to enjoy being part of it anyway, it was all captured so vividly.

I don't ever really write reviews but this is a rare gem and books like this remind me so much why I love to read and why I love to write.

What a stunning debut!

[Kathleen Donlan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hope to not get pilloried for this review....

The writing is gorgeous. The subject matter is addictively readable. BUT...after giving it 100 pages I decided I just didn't care. I wasn't invested in the character, and I didn't have a lot of sympathy for him. I wanted to understand and care and feel something about this narrator; I wanted to "get it" and understand his anger and choices but there wasn't enough character substance or backstory for me to do that I guess. Sigh.

I did appreciate not having that heavy emotional manipulation of readers who are supposed to feel sorry for the narrator. I never felt sorry for him. I guess I didn't feel much of anything one way or anther, pretty ambivalent about what I had read. And again, it's BEAUTIFUL writing.

Maybe if I tried it at another space and time and I was in a different mood, I'd be more interested and invested? IDK...

[Claudia Greening · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful. Descriptions of an inner world that read pure and true. Emotion becomes plot.

[Tessy Consentino · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t stop reading this.

[Never Without a Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Liah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow I really loved reading this book. The writing is beautiful throughout. I full on cried towards the end and it literally felt like I was inside the narrator’s brain for the entire novel. Incredibly sad but so raw and real I hope everyone reads this

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Jane Dennish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so good and heartbreaking at the same time. It reminded me a lot of students I have met, and I think that is why it was hard to read. This is about a boy who runs away from home at 14 and ends up addicted to drugs. The cycle of addiction and the course his life takes reminds me of some of the students I work with at times. They want to make changes, but they just don't know how to. It's devastating, sad, and hopeful. And that cycle just keeps going.

Thank you so much to Harper Perennial for a gifted copy. The paperback version of this book came out in January 2023.

[Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not put this book down. The storytelling and writing is captivating. Certain details withheld until the final chapters, until the right time.

Long ass quote (not sorry):

“Something had happened in the process of writing it down and getting rid of it - internal made external made internal again - in this alchemy, internal resentment got transformed to external love, and I loved everything and everyone in those pages simply because they were there, and, as the the inventory disappeared, I loved it still because I had love within me. And once it was within, it could only move out, forward, up, externally toward what I see and feel.”

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I knew my life was the duration of a thought exhausting itself, and I could feel the thought running out of steam, trailing off like a comet through a dead-ended electric pathway, I was the thought that never formed a connection, never linked up to new pathways, and never caused anything of consequence.”
All Day is a Long Time follows David, the narrator, along his descent into drug abuse and his climb back to sobriety. David is incredibly intelligent, but he slips below the surface of Florida’s neon, plastic-coated exterior and into its dark, gritty underbelly when he becomes addicted to drugs at age 14. As we follow his story over the course of a decade, he continually finds solace within the pages of a book. All Day is a stunning, poignant debut, and I look forward to reading more work from David Sanchez in the future.
Sanchez creates a window into the mind of a person with an addiction through his expert use of sentence patterns, voice, and structure. By staging the story through a first-person point of view, readers witness the narrator’s circuitous thoughts, allowing us to better understand the ebb and flow of recovery. Throughout David’s story, we continually circle back to memories of childhood, particularly those related to water and the jungle. I thought the presence of such stalwart elements as memory and nature created a gorgeous tension when juxtaposed with David’s winding, abstruse, and philosophical internal monologue.
Though this story is bleak, the final chapter is a perfectly hopeful celebration of all it takes to surmount addiction’s suffocating hold. David is surrounded by beauty: familial joy, soaring pelicans, and bioluminescent plankton. His compulsion to philosophize is, in this moment, silenced by a contentment to observe beauty and exist amongst it. As he feels himself slip away into the dark waters of the Gulf at the beginning of the novel, it is there that he finds himself again, so many years later. Hope, he finds, is a mother’s tears, the kiss of seawater on skin, the dance of glittering molecules in the dark night.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was too precious for my taste, even when it tried to be shocking. Cherry was better!

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read a book this fast in awhile, which isn't to say this book was uplifting. Most of the time, the narrator, David, is in the throes of serious addiction (mostly meth and other hard drugs). This isn't one of those books that seems to glorify drug use and make it seem chic and hip. Quite the opposite, actually. The narrator is battling not only his addictions, but also the chaos that is his mind and day-to-day life. Many times his memory can't place what day it is or where he is. ADIALT reminded me of my brother and the life that he has hopefully left behind; a life I'll never know or understand, thankfully. At times, not surprisingly, this was terrifying and obviously ultra depressing. My biggest question is whether or not this is a semi-autobiographical novel since the author and narrator share the same name. All in all, this was beautifully written and incredibly dark, but definitely worth checking out.

[Ella Begnaud · Rating 3 out of 5]

“In a book, there’s two parts: the white part and the black part. Read the black part. I thought that the black part is like the mind and the white is like the brain. It’s just a vessel for the other thing, the nonmaterial thing, to express itself. The black part, the physical instants took of our words, it’s the mind itself but just an effect of the mind. It doesn’t contain all the vaporous possibilities of immateriality, but just one single expression according to its whims, and released into space over time.” (Sanchez 150)

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure why I felt the need to buy this book, but it stood out to me for some reason and I’m glad I bought it. David Sanchez writes so incredibly well and as I read his story I felt like I was there, in the moment, watching it happen. An intense story that made me feel all kinds of emotions.

[Connor Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Sanchez’s All Day Is a Long Time is a raw, unvarnished, gritty coming of age novel about addiction, shame, and the long jagged path toward becoming someone you can stand to live with. set in Florida, the book follows its narrator through the wreckage of bad decisions, selfinflicted harm, and the arduous , humbling work of recovery. Sanchez’s prose is smooth, lyrical ,capturing both the ugliness and the startling beauty that coexist in ordinary life.

What lingers most for myself especially in the novel’s closing movement, is a quietly profound idea that meaning and beauty are not things we’re built to decode. Sanchez suggests an end to the exhausting search for a grand justification, for beauty, for suffering, for the self. The mind may itch for answers, but our monkey brains are not wired to grasp the why behind existence. Instead, the novel gestures toward a gentler, more intuitive truth: that our purpose may not be to understand or solve life, but simply to feel it, to witness beauty without dissecting it, to be present without needing to explain, and with this slight adjustment to perspective we can easily re connect with the child like wonder that made life so exciting and colourful in our youth.

In this sense, the book becomes not just a story of personal recovery, but a quiet philosophical offering. It invites readers to loosen their grip on explanation and allow experience, momentary, shimmering, inexplicable, to be sufficient to go on for at least one more day.

“The waves, as they break, send sparkling lines of glitter across the water. It is bioluminescence, my dad says, tiny plankton that store light from the day and shoot it out when they get stimulated by motion as a way of scaring off predators. But once again, the reason doesn't matter. Throwing water into the air looks like lobbing a handful of diamonds into the night. My brother has glitter in his long and curly hair, and when he splashes me, for a second, my body glitters too, little sparks like all of the potential electricity in my body is becoming kinetic. And farther out, the Gulf, like the map of one electric brain, the waves of the second break pulsing and bright in the sleepy water, synaptic activity flashing with all the subtle movements of water and animal.”

[Alex Mitow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little book blew me away. I’m from Florida and have addiction in my family + the friend circles I grew up in. Now a book should not have to rely on its readers’ relationship to the topic at hand, but I will say that in this case it’ll hit harder for home if you’ve got that central Florida connection. Or any upper-middle-latchkey-obscure-suburbia out there. But specifically, Florida. I’ve never read the contemporary version of my home state put so clearly into words.

The writer manages to weave all the little minutiae we’re taught as kids in the Sunshine State (the green flash, names of fish) and those specific, recognizable feelings like your entire body sticky with sweat in the Florida summers, with a type of homegrown nihilism that any Florida boy who ever picked up a book (or a worse habit) can relate to.

I won’t spoil anything for the reader. It’s a book of addiction and self discovery, one that gives depth and story to the crusty kids we’ve seen hanging by the 7/11 begging for change. I haven’t read any of the reviews that bring this to a 3.8 so can’t speculate as to those readers’ squabbles, but for me this is a 5. It’s eerily hopeful, and not as much of a downer as you’d think for a book centered on addiction.