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A
Long Way Down
Written
by Nick Hornby
Reviewed by Marlene Baird
You have probably never thought of the contemplation of suicide
as being funny, but it can be. Nick Hornby's A Long Way Down
will make you laugh on every page. Four potential suicides meet
at a famous London 'jumping off place' on New Year's Eve. Their
reasons for ending this life are as varied as their personalities:
a TV talk show host who has defamed himself, a musician whose
band has broken up, a teenage girl who has been dumped and a mother
with a crisis.
One of my favorite parts is where we learn the rock musician thinks
that suicide carries a glamorous cache. In thinking about killing
himself, he associates himself with the likes of Sylvia Plath
and Virigina Wolff. When he finds himself on the roof with a bunch
of 'losers' he is sorely disappointed.
For writers: It is written in the first person -- each section
in the view of an alternating character.
Hornby gives the reader a lot to think about besides the value
of life. You'll enjoy it.
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