That the narrator and author of this Florida-set debut share a name is no coincidence. This is raw, semi-autobiographical fiction at its most painfully honest, which could only have been written from actual experience of a teenage descent into addiction, criminality and young offender institutions.
The first traps laid for the 14-year-old David, who’s run away from home to hook up with a girl, are appalling; he’s plied with crack by an old man at a bus stop and subsequently abused. What swiftly follows is the chaos of a desperate search for drugs, interspersed with rehab, reflection and reoffending. The total absence of plot makes All Day Is a Long Time feel more like a memoir.
