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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 (38) Collectible (3) from £0.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  83 reviews
Sales Rank: 14177
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
Condition: Very Good Condition Paperback. May contain minor creasing/scuffing to cover and mild tanning to pages. But otherwise will be of exceptional quality. FAST DISPATCH.
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| Customer Reviews:
 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.
 Write by numbers April 16, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
My first Nick Hornby book and maybe my last.
The trouble was, it was all very unbelievable and the characters were predictable, banal and dull.
I'd really say don't bother buying this book, but if you ever see it in a second hand shop for a quid it's worth a shot.
A Hit. March 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This a very good stuff throughout, a symphony of humour upon drama upon humour. Never a lull, always hitting the right notes again and again. A gang of four that are bound by one theme, yet all are so different. Great characters, especially Jess - a brilliant creation. Maybe you know them, maybe you do not, but there is part of Jess, Martin, Maureen and JJ in all of us. Read it and see. `A Long Way Down' hit's the bullseye - wonderful, marvellous, smashing.
Average... March 18, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
There is nothing sensational about this story. The idea is a good one, but it seems rather half hearted at times. Four suicidal people meet, by accident, at the same suicide spot, on the roof of a building. People meet, people talk, people discover things about each other, people save each others' lives. Logically, there are 2 men and 2 women, one of whom is young, the other is middle aged, and there are 2 somewhere in the middle. It's an easy read, funny and moving in places, but not one to take pride of place on the bookshelf.
Characters written to annoy February 22, 2007
The book is OK. I like the idea of 4 enormously different people getting together and finding out about themselves in the process.
I'm not sure that the characters work in this novel though as they seem to have been deliberately written to irritate the reader and by the end of the book, I really didn't care whether they jumped or not.
I did like the style of writting, flipping between narratives from each of the characters and giving their different interpretations of the same events.
I've read a few of Nick Hornby's novels before and would read others. I was looking forward to reading this book as it had lots of publicity but it was a disappointment.
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