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What are readers saying about A Long Way Down?
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-21 12:25:32.
(Language: English)
  
Four very different characters with very different problems all end up at the top of the same tower block one New Years Eve intending to end it all. Their meeting means different things to all of them, but it does persuade them all to take the stairs down and give life another chance. The story is narrated by each of the four in turn allowing the author to showcase his talent for writing as different characters. All four are at least fairly believable, and I had varying degrees of sympathy for the situations they found themselves in. Hornby has a real eye for characters though, and that's what makes this book occasionally laugh-out-loud funny despite it having suicide as its central theme.
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Thom posted a review at 2009-09-07 06:47:22.
(Language: English)
This book was a bit different to what I have been reading lately. Modern, witty, and has a ending that actually makes sense! A nice, easy read about four people all about to commit suicide who decide to "help" each other in the hope it will prevent them wanting to do so, a non-suicide pact. Maureen was probably my favourite character, the only one you could genuinely feel sorry for!
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-10 01:17:04.
(Language: English)
A must read for anyone who considers jumping out of a top of a building or ending it all in a more creative way ;). This is pretty much the spirit of Hornby's book - cynical yet hilarious, hearbreaking yet positive.Hornby proves once again a deep understanding of the contemporary (british but not only) society in its many facets. This book represents the meeting place of some rather ordinary yet very different characters that would unlikely meet each other in real life.The extraordinary character of their meeting reveals the redemptive power of interaction between some otherwise battered and bitter souls.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-07-12 12:02:54.
(Language: English)
As close to perfect as I've read. You'd imagine, from the synopsis, that the plot revolves around four people wallowing in self-despair and thoughts of suicide, but Hornby does an excellent, humorous job of making his characters realize why life is worth living (the long way down). The Boston Sunday Globe said it best: "A Long Way Down ought to be required reading for writing students who want to know how to evoke one set of circumstances with its opposite; how to capture unspeakable pain with humor; how to suggest camaraderie with trenchant, piss-all irony; how to turn a novel based on suicide into a cello suite about how to go on living."
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-29 06:35:29.
(Language: English)
It's New Year's Eve in London and the lives of four strangers are about to collide as they find themselves atop a high-rise building - all about to commit suicide. There's Martin - a TV newsman caught up in a public scandal, Maureen - a middle-aged mother trapped in a life caring for her invalid son, Jess - a rebellious daughter of a government minister, and JJ - an American rocker whose career had ended before it had even started. Faced with the prospect of death, they all somehow end up preventing each other from doing the dark deed. Thus begins the strange and hilarious story about a band of unlikely characters who, united by the misery they share, try to find strength and support from each other as they find solutions to their own complicated lives. I have always enjoyed reading Nick Hornby's novels, and it's truly fascinating as in how he managed, in this particular one, to pull off a light and humorous approach to such a dark subject - suicide. Specifically, why sometimes people tend to sink to or transcend from it. Each of the four main characters narrate the story alternately, and each in his or her unique voice, mind you, thus giving different views on a single situation. And as always, Hornby writes with such simplicity and pacing that one is slowly absorbed by the storytelling and one would also eventually develop different degrees of empathy towards each despicably flawed character.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-08 01:08:45.
(Language: English)
It's humorous. Clever. Well-written. Like all of Hornby's books. I won't deny it those things. But all the characters have the same voice (it switches between the voices of the four characters, and I kept having to check the chapter headings to remember whose point of view I was supposed to be reading), and I couldn't have cared less whether any of them actually ended up killing themselves like they'd all planned to. I knew they wouldn't - the bleak beginning, and the hopeful crescendo of the writing made this obvious - but I sort of hoped they would. How would Hornby have handled a tragedy?... I've never seen him actually cave to tragedy, only pending tragedy. His plots always work out in the end. Hmm...
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-11-17 06:34:41.
(Language: English)
This book was my first introduction to Nick Hornby and I really enjoyed it. The plot is simple, 4 adults happen to meet on the roof of a building on New Years eve with one common goal, to jump off. But they don't. From there the book goes into common goals and self discovery. Each person is different and, in the book, each person tells their story in their own voice. It makes for a compelling read. I started to really like some characters, dislike others, get mad at some for picking on others, etc. I really enjoyed the flow and style. I feel like the mark of a good writer is the ability to take a simple event and weave a story around it, develop characters, and make you cheer for them. This book did that.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-09-15 03:37:31.
(Language: English)
I agree with a previous reviewer who liked Hornby's use of four different viewpoints (represented by the characters) to delve into the topic of suicide. However, in my opinion, he doesn't get very deep, and fails to be any bit amusing. The reason is his constant efforts throughout the book to avoid coming off as sentimental when dealing with a profoundly sentimental topic. Not saying he should be more sentimental, but he really seems afraid of it, and that holds him back. The characters and the plot seem restrained and somewhat unnuanced, resulting in a lukewarm, weak and indifferent tone that rubs off on the reader. In the end, I couldn't care less for the characters, not because of their less amiable traits, but because I felt I'd been told not to bother.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-05 09:17:56.
(Language: English)
Maybe it was just my mood when I picked this one up (an Xmas gift) but the characters resonated with me in ways they really never should have! Not because they're suicidal, but because they are struggling to deal with the realities of life. And I realized that all of Hornby's books somehow convey that desperation to make good out of bad, to give purpose and meaning to a life gone off the tracks, to make it right again, even if it's never easy and never as good as you want it to be. The main characters aren't hopeless, but they want so very much to have hope. They aren't suicidal, they just are looking for a way to stop struggling so hard, so very much, so relentlessly. And in their mutual support, they find a way to gain hope again, to shore up themselves for the way life has dealt them a bum hand. Too many mixed metaphors, sorry, but it was a great book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-25 11:45:05.
(Language: English)
the beginning was interesting, then it got a little boring.. then again a little interesting.. The thing is that sometimes some of the characters seemed really stupid, then at other moments they said smart things.. But the real point is that for me it was very hard to try to imagine how every one of them actually felt.. It was somebody else's life all the time I was reading and I never managed to get to feel it.. I don't know.. Maybe it's just me. Maybe when something similar happens to us, then it is the meaning of everything.. then it occupies our whole being. But just by reading I never managed to experience it through the book.. But as a whole I guess this is a nice read - gets into the lives of a couple of ordinary folks who, in a way, bump into the same things we also get to experience at one point of time or another..
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-29 03:06:02.
(Language: English)
Extraordinarily entertaining while treating pretty serious themes..... wonderfully written through witty dialogues and narration from multiple points of view... great, realistic characters!!! You can picture and hear them as you read....Four very different people accidentally matched by the one thing they have in common: the will to end their lives on New Year's eve... There is depth but no sadness.... Fantastic (English)humour throughout... I cannot stop reading it, I'll be sad when I'm finished... will have to grab Hornby's next novel......
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-27 09:10:30.
(Language: English)
I didn't enjoy this book. It had a real opportunity to make something great out of the beginning of the story, but instead it just dragged the reader through an uneventful story of 4 lost souls who appear to never learn anything real. There's no real message involved, and I didn't find that I sympathized with any of the characters, or particularly cared for what was to come of them. I wouldn't recommend this book. This was uninspiring and had so much potential to be something greater. It was self-absorbed and lacked any sympathy for any of the characters involved. I didn't give it one star because it was an easy read, just not a particularly enjoyable one.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-08 05:17:53.
(Language: English)
Dieses Buch ist ein stückweit nervtötend und anstrengend. Die Geschichte aber interessant und so bleibt man dabei. Es geht um vier Menschen, die alle zufällig am gleichen Abend in London von einem Hochhaus in den Tod springen wollen. Sie treffen dort oben aufeinander und halten sich gegenseitig von der Tat ab. Anschließend beschliessen sie sich gegenseitig zu helfen und unterstützen sich bei regelmässigen Treffen. Da ist die ältere Maureen, die einen behinderten Sohn hat und nur noch für ihn lebt. Martin, ein bekannter Fernsehmoderator, der mit einer Minderjähringen geschlafen hat und dessen Familie ihn verlassen hat. Jess, eine rotzfreche Halbstarke, die sich mit niemandem zu verstehen scheint und alles und jeden beleidigt und schliesslich JJ, ein erfolgloser Musiker. Jeder der Vier schreibt aus der eigenen Perspektive. Es ist erstaunlich wie gut sich Hornby in die Stimmen einzelnen versetzt; gerade das macht die Passagen von Jess so anstrengend zu lesen. Letztendlich bleibt die Geschichte aber trivial, weil sie ohne grosse Überraschungen auskommt und genau so ausgeht, wie man sich das am Anfang vorstellt.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-09 12:09:40.
(Language: English)
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Sometimes I think I may have outgrown Nick Hornby and similar writers, but no, I think there's still something to this that speaks to me. Really, the more I think about this novel, the more I conclude that while it seems like a rather quick, pretty surface-y read, many of the issues addressed had a way of sticking to me... almost like I got tricked into considering new ideas. Which I have to say, I don't mind. I also quite enjoy Hornby's evident love of books which is sprinkled throughout. Especially the observation that it's considered weird to read a book with other people around, but no one gives it a second thought when someone is playing video games in a crowded room. (Haha... except for me.) WARNING: SPOILERS (not that there's many plot points to spoil...) Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, I actually found Maureen the most interesting character. One thing that she says really hit me as spot on... the need to not fill all 60 minutes an hour every hour with the same thing. I know that I am sometimes guilty of that, and it does nothing for my mental health. Maureen also has the shittiest situation in my opinion... while Matty, her completely nonfunctional son, doesn't have a voice at all in the novel, his presence is definitely felt. I don't know what I'd do in her situation. What she says about having kids struck me as being pretty right too... that a lot of people have kids to feel a sense of forward motion in their lives, and one of the saddest things about her life is that nothing ever changes because Matty never really grows up. Interestingly, though, she seems to me the happiest of the 4 main characters by the end of the novel, and it has a lot more to do with her outlook than with external events. Really, some of the other characters actually struck me as kind of whiny and less sympathetic. I liked that nothing really changes by the end of the novel, but the characters somehow seem like they will be okay in the end. Not great, but okay. The plot meanders along, with lots of fairly random things happening and no real end destination in sight, but the destination isn't the point of this novel. It's figuring out how to get there that's the interesting (and difficult) part.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-10 09:31:56.
(Language: English)
Such well realised characters with unique and modern voices - complete emotional honesty about the selfish, self-absorbed, egomanaical, morbid and anxious nature of the human mind, paired with hilarious scenarios and speech that was so true to our generation, or, I don't know, social era it was amazing. This is actually the first Nick Hornby book I've read properly, and I somewhat regret not having picked up one of his before. He used to live on Sotheby Road in Highbury where I lived in 2006, and I think he generally lives in North London. As such, I think a few of his books are set in and around it - this one included. It was kind of cool to read about places I'm so familiar with - the Holloway Odeon, for instance, where we went just a few weeks ago to see Sweeney Todd, or Hope & Anchor in Islington, where we've been a few times for drinks or small gigs. Martin Sharpe, a breakfast chat show host whose entire career is in the toilet, along with his marriage, his relationship with his children, and his dignity, is seriously considering throwing himself off the top of a tower-block on New Years Eve, when he suddenly notices he's not the only one contemplating his own demise that night. He is joined by Maureen, a single mother of a disabled son, and soon afterwards they are both joined by Jess, a teenager with lots of issues, the main one probably her big mouth. As the three quarrell about who should jump first, or if Jess should really jump at all (as she is so young), they suddenly become four as failed American rock musician JJ turns up, cold pizza in hand, to announce his intention of jumping too. The unlikely foursome have one thing in common, but that thing ends up being what brings them down off the roof. The book then sees how they cope with their lives after their suidcide attempts, if you can call standing on a roof an attempt, and their involvement in each others lives in the following months. It's real, it's imaginative and very thought-provoking: not because it deals with the issue of suicide on a deep and mind-altering level, but it certainly speaks about the ability of the human mind to overcome the shitiness that life (or sometimes ourselves) throws at us. Not so much about bravery in the face of said shitiness, but more perseverance. Just... sticking around. I'll admit I was skeptical as to my ability to find a book about suicide funny. I find it hard to find any jokes to do with suicide at all amusing. I have lost enough people to it, to be unable to see the 'lighter' side. However what Hornby has managed to do is write a novel that both entertains, and takes suicide as seriously as it should be taken. And for that I have immeasurable respect for him. It was a quick read, but VERY worthwhile.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-15 11:31:17.
(Language: English)
I started reading this with high hopes, as I had enjoyed High Fidelity and About A Boy very much, but a was a bit disappointed. Mind you, it's a good book : it's funny and insightful, and Hornby manages to capture the voices of his characters very well. Its strength, however, is also its weakness. Hornby tries to explain why somebody decides to kill himself (and acts accordingly, or not) on an empathic level, and succeeds brilliantly. However, I failed to identify with any of the main characters - they were all losers, really (except for the women, to be honest, who actually change for the better). I rarely finish a book that I enjoyed much without a slight pang of pain because I want to know more about the characters. This book failed to prompt that reaction. I've almost forgotten I read it...
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-30 07:23:04.
(Language: English)
As a result of reading High Fidelity.. I grew to like Hornby's writing style and was interested to read this book when I read its blurb. When I finished, I was quiet satisfied =) even though high fidelity is better in many ways compared to this book....it still captivates me in many ways. I found it quite intriguing that a story about 4 people wanting to commit suicide can be a very entertaining read. It's amazing how hornby tells the tale of how these 4 met on top of a building ready to die, new year's eve, and changed each other's lives forever...they all end up alive and well. martin (a tv presenter who has pissed his life away), JJ (failing rockstar), Maureen (poor single mom with disabled son) and Jess (angsty teen) will forever be one of my fav misery gang =) "the first thing that came to my mind was jonathan richman's 'Abominable Snowman in the market', maybe because it was sweet and silly, and reminded me of a time in life when I could afford to be that way. And then I started humming the Cure's 'In Between Days' which made a little more sense. It wasn't today and it wasn't tomorrow, and it wasn't last year and it wasn't next year, and anyway the whole roof thing was an in-between kind of limbo, seeing as we hadn't yet made up our minds where our immortal souls were headed" -JJ
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Jeremy posted a review at 2007-11-27 05:37:57.
(Language: English)
A very well told story of four very different but remarkably similar individuals, creatively told from each of their perspectives. Although some characters start out quite annoying or shallow, by midway through the book you love them all. A very funny book, a hilarious look at life and what keeps us in it. I quite liked the ending too, very suited to the book. I like this quote from page 230, from JJ: And suddenly, just for a moment, I felt good. It helped that I really loved cold Guinnes; it helped that I really love Ed and Lizzie. Or I used to love them, or kind of love them, or loved and hated them, or whatever. And maybe for the first time in the last few months, I acknowledged something properly, something I knew had been hiding right down in my guts, or at the back of my head - somewhere I could ignore it anyway. And what I owned up to was this: I had wanted to kill myself not because I hated living, but because I loved it. And the truth of the matter is, I think, that a lot of people who think about killing themselves feel the same way - I think that's how Maureen and Jess and Martin feel. They love life, but it's all fucked up for them, and that's why I met them, and that's why we're all still around. We were up on the roof because we couldn't find a way back into life, and being shut out of it like that... It just fucking destroys you, man. So it's like an act of despair, not nihilism. It's a mercy killing, not a murder. From Jess, on page 52: When Martin pulled me outside, I did that thing where you decide to become a different person. It's something I could do whenever I felt like it. Doesn't everybody, when they feel themselves getting out of control? You know: say to yourself, OK, I'm a booky person, so then you go and get some books from the library and carry them around for a while. Or, OK, I'm a druggy person, and smoke a lot of weed. Whatever. And it makes you feel different. If you borrow someone else's clothes or their interests or their words, what they say, then it can give you a bit of a rest from yourself, I find. It was time to feel different. I don't know why I said that stuff to Maureen; I don't know why I say half the things I say. I knew I had overstepped the mark, but I couldn't help myself. I get angry, and when it starts it's like being sick. I puke and puke over someone and I can't stop until I'm empty. I'm glad Martin pulled me outside. I needed stopping. I need stopping a lot. So I told myself that from that point on I was going to be more of a person from the olden days kind of thing. I swore not to swear, ha ha, or to spit; I swore not to ask harmless old ladies who are clearly more or less virgins whether they shagged doggy style. Martin went spare at me, told me I was a bitch, and an idiot, and asked me what Maureen had ever done to me. And I just said, Yes, sir, and No, sir, and Very sorry, sir, and I looked at the pavement, not at him, just to show him I really was sorry. And then I curtsied, which I thought was a nice touch. And he said, What the fuck's this, now? What's the yes sir no sir business? And from Martin, on page 232-233: Here's the thing. The cause of my problems is located in my head, if my head is where my personality is located. (Cindy and others would argue that both my personality and the source of my troubles were located below rather than above my waist, but me out.) I had been given many opportunities in life, and I had thrown each of them away, one by one, through a series of catastrophically bad decisions, each of which seemed like a good idea to me - to me and my head - at the time. And yet the only tool I had at my disposal to correct the disastrous course me life seemed to be taking was the very same head that had caused me to fuck up in the first place. What chance did I have?
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-06-26 07:30:49.
(Language: English)
It's a novel about four people from different walks of life who meet on the roof of a building on New Year's Eve. They have one thing in common: they are all about to jump to their deaths. There's Martin, the ex-morning TV personality who lost his family after going to prison for sleeping with an underage girl; there's Jess, the foul-mouthed young girl who wants to end it after being shunned by her first boyfriend; there's Maureen, the middle-aged dowdy single mom who has spent the last 20 years looking after her vegetative son; and there's J.J., passionate about music, who has lost his band, his girl, and simply has nothing left. Somehow these four convince themselves to at least postpone the whole suicide thing, and end up sticking with each other in a ragtag support group of sorts. It's an enjoyable read, for what it is. Pretty amusing in parts. Hornby has each of his four characters narrate short sections, and this works well. I didn't like it as much as his other novels, but it's an entertaining diversion if you're looking for something light (even the book's central theme - the ins, outs, and what-have-yous of suicidal thoughts - is darkly comical).
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-07-09 07:11:17.
(Language: English)
I adhore journals so it shouldn't've been a suprise when I thought this book was awful. Perhaps it was because it was written by Nick Hornby that I read it, or perhaps that it was on sale (on sale, perhaps, because it was so awful?). These pathetic characters whine and bitch in the most irritating way completely lacking any grammar- hence the 'journals'. I think Nick Hornby sat down and wrote this in an evening. The story of an illterate young girl, a massively irritatingly naive old bag, a television character (resembling Will slightly in 'about a boy'), and an American. Clearly Nick Hornby needs to associate more with Americans before writing in their language, or stick with Brits altogether. These four characters create a shotty gang together on the top of a building where they previously had ideas to jump off of and then each begin telling the tales of their own fall in the following pages. Honestly, I've seen more depth in a wadding pool. An incredibly easy read in Nick Hornby's style you can finish it even while quietly crying for its failure.
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Tong posted a review at 2010-08-16 01:35:20.
(Language: English)
"A Long Way Down" is an easy reading booking so as Nick's "High Fidelity". The four depressing humans have their stories / reasons behind to jump down. I personally find disturbing when the teen Jess cursing a lot, but this might have its purpose to reflect how spoiled Jess was when her sister just disappeared in the world and she was the only hope for her rich parents. Martin was an "old sleazy bag" actor who thought he wanted to have mental support by his ex-wife Cindy and his daughters but what he really needed was escaping the tabloids, staying single with lots of young girls around. Maureen was trying to escape her responsibilities to take care of her disabled son. The American JJ got dumped by girlfriend and left the band so impulsively trying to end his life. The book is witty and funny but yet, let you know that all the problems you think are serious are actually happened around the world. If we could think positive, everything can be sorted out. I like this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-25 04:47:03.
(Language: English)
I feel obliged to read whatever hornby produces, even though I had a hard time getting into it, the caricatures and multiple hat changes are worthy. did not understand why one jacket reviewer quote was from johnyy depp. getting the feeling that hornby has started to write with cinematography already in mind. the aftertaste was not dissimilar to that of how to be good
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-04-09 03:11:01.
(Language: English)
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:5.0 out of 5 stars really a long way down, February 2, 2006Suicide is not a group endeavor. But this it will become if you choose to kill yourself by jumping off the roof of London's most popular suicide spot - Topper's house, on the most popular night for committing suicide - New Year's Eve. This is the predicament of Martin, Maureen, Jess and JJ in Nick Hornby's latest bestseller, A Long Way Down. It is a bold setup, but Hornby pulls it off with understated ease and wit.Maureen, a naive single mother has no life beyond caring for her severely disabled son. Martin, a television host finds life unlivable after public disgrace and imprisonment for having sex with a 15-year-old girl. Jess, a snotty, uninhibited 18-year-old girl with a politician father and missing sister, is depressed because she cannot track down the boy she likes. JJ, a failed American rocker, is forced to deliver pizza and entertains the delusion that if he leaps with a copy of Richard Yates's ''Revolutionary Road'' in his arms, his death might bring it a wider readership. Bonded by their shared misery, the motley crew of misfits spend the night together, telling their stories and eating cold pizza. As Jess reflects: "When you're sad - like, really sad, Toppers' House sad - you only want to be with other people who are sad."At its core, A Long Way Down isn't really about suicide itself, rather it's about what happens when you realise that you don't have the guts to push yourself off the edge. The tale that subsequently unfolds is an unusual and unpredictable one. The odd quartet coalesces into a kind of surrogate family; each individual takes a halting first step toward creating a tolerable future, while constantly getting on each other's nerves. Hornby alternates adroitly executed comic episodes - a brush with tabloid fame, a group vacation to the Canary Islands, a book group focused on writers who have committed suicide, a disastrous attempt to save Martin's marriage - with interludes of insightful reflections.Despite his sardonic humour, Hornby is never superficial enough to suggest that these lives that have fallen apart can easily be patched up and renewed. There is no melodrama, no heroism, no magical cures, and no glorious moments of redemption. If, as a result, there's a sort of aimlessness as the book dwindles toward its end, perhaps it is the price Hornby pays in his refusal to offer either cheap, grand or sentimental reasons to choose life. He seems to flounder in the pointlessness of it all. It is almost as though he is fairly certain that life is worth living but can't quite find the ways to prove it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-27 04:05:52.
(Language: English)
A LONG WAY DOWN is Nick Hornby's version of THE BREAKFAST CLUB for four strangers who have nothing in common except for the accident of trying to commit suicide at the same place and time. A LONG WAY DOWN has no memorable passages or lyrical sentences, but Hornby's writing has a Salinger-like introspective quality and he has a gift for sardonic humor, preposterous situations and odd plot twists. Once again, Hornby dips into his encyclopedic knowledge of rock music and pop culture the same way John Irving used to return to his knowledge of high school wrestling. The characters sound too much alike throughout the book and never really grow or change, but they each find a measure of contentment through human contact with the all too human characters that people this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-05-10 06:12:31.
(Language: English)
This is my second Nick Hornby book. I'm beginning to suspect that all his books have a depressing streak. How to be Happy was about an unhappy family and a kind of mid-life crisis. A Long Way Down is about four very different Londoners who find themselves coincidentally one new year's eve on the roof of a building with the same idea. The novel is told in the first person by each character. It is hard to explain what happens because not a lot happens. Or, more accurately, some stuff happens, but it's not that kind of book. Hornby is clever and the book has funny moments, but a deep sadness runs through it. The audio book actors are excellent, however.
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