A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
Penguin Audiobooks, 2006
Who knew that a book about suicide could be so fun?! A Long Way Down is the story of four suicidal people who meet one New Year’s Eve on the roof of an infamous suicide spot. The four potential jumpers have almost nothing in common: Martin, a breakfast television show host whose life has fallen into despair after he was involved in a widely published scandelous affair with a 15 year old girl. Maureen, a middle aged woman whose entire life for the past twenty years has been consumed with caring for her disabled son…alone. JJ, an American who is facing the bitter reality of mediocre life not as a rockstar after his band has broken up and his girlfriend has dumped him. And, finally, Jess, a teenage punk with manic mood swings and a difficult family life, who has just been harshly dumped by her first boyfriend. The only thing this foresome has in common with one another is the fact that they ended up on a rooftop, ready to plunge themselves off on New Years Eve. Despite this, the group ends up forming, well, a group. Their misadventures with suicide take them around London that night and continue on in the coming months. No one, not even themselves, can really understand the connection they have made as a sort of suicidal family of misfits.
Although based on the concept of suicide, A Long Way Down is really an uplifting and humourous read. It’s dark humor, yes, but there is a certain lightheartedness that permeates even the most devastating of moments.
The book’s narration is swapped back and fourth among the four characters. I listened to the audio version which added a significant amount of enjoyment to the experience and worked very well for the format of the book. The audio version felt much like a play, which in this case turned out to be a very good thing. The actors chosen for each character add a certian amount of depth, each with very different speech patterns and accents. Also, the humor translates well to audio format and granted me several laughs on the long drive that I used to listen to A Long Way Down.
