A Long Way Down

Edith sent me a book she thought I might like to read while I'm waiting for Lambert to cut my nuts off. It turns out to be Nick Hornby's long awaited 4th. novel called 'A Long Way Down' and I'm quite enjoying it. It's about a bunch of people who want to commit suicide.

Briefly...four people come together on New Year's Eve. There's a former TV talk show host, a failed rock musician, a teenage chav-type girl, and the mother of a spastic kid. Three are British, one is American. They run into each other on the roof of Topper's House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those who want to end their lives. It's got the lot, life, death, not much sex, desperation and quite a few laughs.

I especially like Martin, the disgraced TV Presenter. What a sarcastic ponce.

I leave literary criticism to the experts because I'm not qualified. But I will say this...Hornby can write. In an ingratiating kind of way. And the idea is great. Get a mixed group together and let them ramble on about this and that before they make the big jump. Pity Nick doesn't seem to know where he's going with it. Then again if they all jumped in the first few pages he wouldn't have much to write about. Basically Nick is a really nice bloke and he doesn't want to give someone a messy pavement to clean up.

Don't get me wrong...it's a good effort. Very well written and very entertaining. The trouble is none of the characters seem really serious about suicide. They're serious about talking about it alright, which is fine, but the despair seems a bit contrived if you know what I mean. It's not really about suicide at all...it's about redemption. Which is why Edith liked it I suppose. Bless her heart. She hasn't given up on me yet.