A Long Way Down

I finished Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down this evening. It's a novel about four people from different walks of life who meet on the roof of a building on New Year's Eve. They have one thing in common: they are all about to jump to their deaths. There's Martin, the ex-morning TV personality who lost his family after going to prison for sleeping with an underage girl; there's Jess, the foul-mouthed young girl who wants to end it after being shunned by her first boyfriend; there's Maureen, the middle-aged dowdy single mom who has spent the last 20 years looking after her vegetative son; and there's J.J., passionate about music, who has lost his band, his girl, and simply has nothing left. Somehow these four convince themselves to at least postpone the whole suicide thing, and end up sticking with each other in a ragtag support group of sorts.

It's an enjoyable read, for what it is. Pretty amusing in parts. Hornby has each of his four characters narrate short sections, and this works well. I didn't like it as much as his other novels, but it's an entertaining diversion if you're looking for something light (even the book's central theme - the ins, outs, and what-have-yous of suicidal thoughts - is darkly comical).