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| A Long Way Down | 
 enlarge | Author: Nick Hornby
Publisher: Viking
Category: Book
Buy Used: £0.01
New (8) Collectible (2) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 536378
Media: Paperback
Edition: Export / Airside Ed
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0670915637
EAN: 9780670915637
ASIN: 0670915637
Publication Date: July 28, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 77 more reviews...
 Good Plot but Lousy Characters July 1, 2008
Have to confess I'm disappointed with this outing from Nick Hornby. Normally I find the characters quite likeable in his novels, but in this one I found them dull and irritating, and wanted to skip their interventions, which was a problem seeing as they're the narrators of the story itself. The storyline, that of four people gatecrashing each others's suicide bid, is a commendably original one as always from Hornby, but don't be fooled by the blurb on the back of the book. Some of the dialogue between the characters is absolutely dire and I was fed up of reading swear words.
Hornby set a high standard with "About a Boy" and "How to be Good", both excellent books. "A Long Way Down" falls well below it. I hope the next one will be better.
A Long Way Down March 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm afraid I couldn't even get halfway through this book due to the ludicrous storyline and characterisation. Really liked About A Boy and High Fidelity, but this one should be avoided (as should How To Be Good)
 A Topping Great Chuckle February 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When four people decide to commit suicide by jumping off the Toppers building on New Years Eve, you get the most unlikliest mix of people you could ever imagine.
And what follows is the constant up-to-the-moment viewpoint from all four jumpees, right the way through the book.
And it's an absolute HOOT!!!
I loved it: nonsensical and silly in parts, heart-rending in others, but all in all a great fun-read. And yet there's a serious message underneath it all - but why trouble yourself with it? - just enjoy the banter and the togetherness - I couldn't wait to get back to it - it just brings a smile to your face.
Enjoy.
Lazy, pretentious rubbish... February 23, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Nick Hornby is essentially seems to be writing the same novel over and over, each one slightly worse than the last. The characters and their dialogue are completely contrived and unbelievable - at no point do you get any sense of why the characters are staying together or any sense of real unity. None of the characters are remotely likeable and you feel no real sympathy for them.
As with a lot of the current crop of wafer thin English literature, he writes with an arrogance and lack of perception that assumes what is normal to him, both in thought, word and deed will still be normal and pertinent to everyday people, whereas in truth he is probably now a millionaire with very little grasp on reality. Indeed, all his great reviews for this underdeveloped and disappointing novel are garnered from places like The Independent, Observer and Guardian - presumably written by similar, deluded, Latte drinking, Range-Rover-on-the-school-run, Islington living yuppies as the author. Therefore, his first person narrative works much better for the music obsessed geek and the arsehole media type but his attempts to write from the perspective of an 18-year-old and 51-year-old female are trite, contrived and borderline embarrassing. Case-in-point - 18 year olds do not use words like wally anymore and no one under the age of fifty uses the word blow to describe marijuana - nowadays blow equals cocaine. Surely some of his Islington media chums could've told him that?
Even the names are too cute for their own good. In this and his previously, slightly better, but still pretty poor novel `How To Be Good', the author uses names like JJ, DJ Goodnews and Nodog - which probably seem a bit edgy and out-there to him and indeed probably were when the author first realised he was clever enough to write books, but unfortunately that was in 1992 or something and now using names like that comes across a bit like your geography teacher trying to be cool.
The book is living proof that good ideas don't always make good novels, especially if they are good ideas for films. And all this from the man who wrote `High Fidelity'... Sad.
His funniest yet but with a slightly dissapointing ending! January 24, 2008
The first half of this book is incredibly funny and I found myself laughing out loud at nearly every other page. The concept in itself is very unusual as the idea of a comic novel being about four people who want to commit suicide. I loved the humour that came from Martin, the insanity and honesty that came from Jess and the hope that came from Maureen, JJ I felt nothing for really. The novel was in my opinion his funniest but not his best. I would give the first half five stars and the second half three, his other books are more consistent in general, although to perhaps keep the realism it needed to end this way.
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