A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby

The novel A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby is a dark comedy, playing mainly on the theme of suicide, and was published in 2005. It is written in a rather unorthodox manner, featuring narrative by four main characters; Jess, Martin, JJ, and Maureen, each of whom are found on the roof of the most popular suicide location in London in the first chapter with suicidal intentions. Their common goal is a result of very different mishaps in each of their lives, and Hornby spends much of the book giving us their backgrounds; Jess's parents are divorced, her sister ran away from home some years previously, and she is very unpopular within her social circles, Martin had his idyllic lifestyle as a TV celebrity torn apart after sleeping with a fifteen year old and doing time in prison, JJ leaves his promising band to continue a relationship with his longtime girlfriend who subsequently breaks up with him, and Maureen finds herself ambitionless, without opportunity, and seperated from society as she single handedly takes care of her disabled son. Over the course of the story, the protagonists agree to refrain from suicide and try to rebuild their lives for the time being, and the remainder of the book deals with them attempting to do just that.
In A Long Way Down, Hornby achieves several positive things within his writing. One of these is the witty dialogue which he makes use of, and another is the diversity of each different character's narrative; their differing philosophies, responses, and emotions. The dialogue is quite funny because of the extreme personality of each protagonist. They all possess traits that one might see in every day life, yet these are magnified intensely to illustrate a character that is very much a misfit. This means that the arrogant Martin, diminutive Maureen, obnoxious Jess, and calculating JJ constantly misunderstand each other, and in some cases hate each other because of this. Secondly, the characters' narrative is a humorous insight into their true thoughts and opinions on all that goes on around them.
Despite these two positives, the audience of Hornby's novel may also feel that he did some things worse than he could have. For example, I found that the format left something to be desired, in that it was a little to jumpy at times, switching from one characters' point of view to another every few pages, making it difficult to follow. Also, I felt that some issues were not tied up properly, and not revisited sufficiently to make them seem worthwhile. While this may have been in the spirit of the novel, generating an air of overall incompleteness and making most things the characters do seem like pointless pursuits.
I enjoyed A Long Way Down immensely, and thought that its dark humour and interesting characters would make it a worthwhile read for all.

Hamish Ballantyne