A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby


finished 01.19.10

I remember hearing about A Long Way Down when it first came out in 2005. It sounded interesting. Four different people decided to end their life and climb to the top of a tall building in London with the intent of jumping off. They meet each other up on the roof…. and then what? I don’t know. For some reason I never got the book and read it until now.

A Long Way Down is written by Nick Hornby who also wrote two other books I really enjoyed: About a Boy & High Fidelity. So, no surprise, I really liked A Long Way Down. Well, it was a bit of a surprise because the last book of his I read, How to Be Good, I didn’t really enjoy.

Anyway, I liked A Long Way Down. Great dark comedy. The story is told from the point of view of each of the four main characters. The short chapters rotate between them. I really liked the characters in this book, I really liked the British slang and setting, and I really liked to see how they turned out after wanting to commit suicide. Would they still do it? Would they be ok? Hornby took this ultra serious topic and without making light of it, makes you laugh out loud in this story.

While reading this book, I couldn’t help but think about a movie being made from it.

One thought on “A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *