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| A Long Way Down | 
 enlarge | Author: Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £7.98 (100%)
New (37) Collectible (1) from £0.30
Avg. Customer Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 6304
Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0140287027
EAN: 9780140287028
ASIN: 0140287027
Publication Date: April 6, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A dissapointing read September 10, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the first Nick Hornby book I've read, and it's fair to say that it probably wasn't the best place to start. I've heard good things about the author before but this book infuriated me far too much. I did have a few laugh out loud moments, but not as many as I hoped, and while the premise had the potential for some great observations on the bleaker side of human nature it was largely wasted. The use of 4 seperate first person naratives just managed to annoy me as did the plain stupidy of the characters. Maybe it allows for more humour but I just found myself having no care for their outcomes and therefore the ending of the book.
From reading some truly great novels over the last few years you realise its a poor writing to continously state the obvious, but in this book it's common place, so much so that I felt I was being talked down to. Maybe I'm missing the point slightly, but if Hornby adopts a similar writing style for all his novels then in future he's an author I'm going to stay clear of.
 Professional suicide July 29, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
A Long Way Down is an apt title: this is a once-talented author in freefall. How To Be Good was simply bad. This is even worse: it is boring. Where is the Nick Hornby who delighted us with High Fidelity and About A Boy? This is Ben Elton-lite, Tony Parsons-lite and worst of all Nick Hornby-lite. Four uninteresting, unsympathetic and frankly dull characters, in a virtually plotless tale of suicide and redemption, totally lacking in the insight, warmth and humour we have come to expect. The concept is clever and original, but the execution goes wrong almost from the start. Martin, Tess, JJ and Maureen should all have jumped in the first chapter and saved us all from this tedious tale. Four novels so far, two excellent ones, two very disappointing ones. It's 2-2 Nick, and heading into extra time. Are you going to surprise us with a late winner?
Fans will be disappointed June 28, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm a big Nick Nornby fan and his previous books have seen me howl with laughter. There were some astute funny observations in this but his writing style seems to have changed and I was really aware that I was reading a work of fiction. Books like High Fidelity and About a Boy are so absorbing and amazingly written you feel like you're part of the novel and can relate to different facets of the characters involved.
A Long Way Down would be fine if I wasn't used to so much better.
 Mundane but marvellous May 27, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've loved Nick Hornby ever since High Fidelity, as he writes about real life, and does it without being trite or schmaltzy (hello Tony Parsons!).
In this, he tells the story of four suicidal people who meet by accident at a notorious death spot on New Year's Eve, and what they go on to do after they meet.
I found it a completely refreshing read, as this is a tale of ordinary people bonding over an extraordinary act, which doesn't rely on twists or coincidences, just the foibles and faults of really believable characters, and how they cope with being alive.
Classic Hornby May 18, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
When How To Be Good was published, much was made of the fact that Hornby has chosen to make his protagonist a woman - the coverage for A Long Way Down seemed to focus much more on the atypical subject matter (suicide and depression) rather than his deployment of four alternating voices throughout his book to explore how four different people reached the point where they wanted to end their lives.
The book sees four very different people on top of a block of flats that also serves as a local suicide spot one New Years Eve. All four stop each other from jumping yet all feel that they have very real problems that they cannot solve, at least not on their own. From this point, Hornby moves through the development of the characters lives from this point onwards and explores the common bond that ties them all together.
Hornby has drawn his characters expertly and it is difficult not to empathise with them. The book is also shot through with his normal humorous observations and this could be the funniest book about depression ever written. This is not to say that the book makes light of suicide - indeed, it is a beautiful exploration of what remains a real taboo within society.
A Long Way Down is not a book of perfect happy endings, but like How To Be Good suggests glimmers of hope at the end of the book. This book has reaffirmed Hornby's status of one of the best writers the UK currently has to offer.
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