A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
This was my first Nick Hornby book. Had I to do it over again, I don’t think I’d choose this book to start with, but with that being said there were things about this book that I really appreciated.
A Long Way Down is the story of four people who meet on the rooftop of a building on New Years Eve. Their sole purpose in being there (although their reasons differ) is to jump and end their lives. But since all four of them have the same idea they end up striking an interesting sort of “support” group instead of doing the deed and begin to explore each other and themselves.
I appreciated the smart writing in this novel. I didn’t appreciate the flippant manner in which the characters used the “F” word, but even that was explained in a paragraph that had me chortling. It was strange to realize and accept about a third of the way through this book that there was probably not going to be anything especially profound revealed and that, live or eventually die, these characters wouldn’t really have a special “story” to tell, but then I started to realize the story was in their interactions with one another and something that was completely aside from the fact that they were all there to commit suicide. That was just a way of pulling them together.
I enjoyed the book more then I thought I would. I don’t know that I could recommend it because it was pretty dreary now that I think back on it, but it was a funny read and very, very real.
