Book Review: A Long Way Down

A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Riverhead Trade (2006)
ISBN-10: 1594481938
ISBN-13: 978-1594481932

My Rating:

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This is a book Kelly recommended to me from the author of High Fidelity and About A Boy. Its a book on par with Death to Smoochy in that it is dark humor, at times, very dark.

The book is about four different people, a troubled teen, a scandalized talk show host, a middle ages woman with a disabled son and an Ex rock star, who find themselves on a 'tower block' (yes, he is British) and ready commit suicide on New Years Eve. Needless to say they find a reason not to kill themselves that night, or the next, or the next until thoughts of suicide slowly dissipate.

Each character tells the story, as they see it, in their own voice. The changing perspectives is what really gives you the full picture in the book and helps to lighten the mood in particularly dark sections.

I think the book focuses on more real aspects of suicide as opposed to a movie drama version. It tackles some real thoughts that real people could have while making the book funny and a bit up lifting in then end as each person 'comes to terms'.

I say this book was 4 Stars but really it's more like 3.75. I say that because while I enjoyed the book a lot and thought it was a good read, it took me a while to read it (about two weeks) and for me, thats a long time. I enjoyed the story a lot but for some reason it wasn't a I want to hurry up and read this book to get to the end. Perhaps it was the lack of 'suspense' that kept me from burning the lamp light, but still an excellent book.