Long Way Down, a philosophical and psychological black comedy, is the story of four strangers meeting on the roof of a high building called Topper's House in London, UK, on New Year's Eve. The four characters, Martin (a disgraced TV personality), Maureen (lonely housewife with a severely disabled son in her care), Jess (an eighteen-year old teenager), and JJ (an unsuccessful American musician), are totally different from each other and with totally different problems. What unites them is the reason they all ended up on the roof of Topper's House: to commit suicide.

Their plan of killing themselves is postponed until St. Valentine's Day as the result of their interactions, and in the meantime, they decide to meet often. After St, Valentine's Day, their idea of suicide is postponed for later, but with happier results, since at the end the characters have somewhat accepted who they are.

Several twists and turns occur during the course of the postponements to make the story palatable and even exciting as each character brings some new twist to the storyline. Of the four characters, Jess is usually the instigator who starts things.

This is one book in which the characterization is superb as it is written through each character's own mouth, and it is impossible to do justice to it without giving away the entire plot.

How well the characters were developed, each with his/her unique diction and different ways of experiencing life.

the naming of the characters. Maureen and Martin both start with the letter M, but this wasn't a problem. JJ, at one point, had dealings with a person named Jesse in his band, which could have been easily mixed up with the teenage character of Jess.

not too freaked-out about suicide.

Nick Hornby is an English novelist and screenwriter whose work, at times, touches music, as he has had a short fling with music. His other novels are: High fidelity, About a Boy, How to be Good, Slam, Juliet Naked. He also has a songbook, short stories, and essays.

it is the story of flawed characters, their bonding with each other, and eventually life in general. Also, it is entertaining in a quirky way, and it made me keep reading.

The language of the book is plain and straightforward, and no melodrama or preaching exists that can be expected from a subject like this.
I am sorry I didn't read this book when it first came out while there was quite a bit of discussion around it. What had kept me away was that it was about suicide, a subject of misery that turns me off completely.

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Created Feb 10, 2011 at 2:22pm • Submit your own review...