A Long Way Down

Book Description

Critics

• From a whisper to a scream

  A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby 288pp, Viking, £17.99 Nick Hornby has grown up in public. Lad lit's original gang leader has written about football, music, parental responsibility and morality, his work organically evolving with maturity. This time, h ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• Meet the four toppers

  A Long Way Down Nick Hornby Viking £17.99, pp258 PG Wodehouse may have been the last light-comic writer to be comfy in his pigeonhole. Since then, it has become hard to find a jester who wants to play anything but Hamlet. With his fourth novel, Nick ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

22 Reviews

• 5 people find this helpful

  

  The best Horny book to date; again, Hornby create characters that you can't love nor hate, and the more you read, the more you feel both attracted and disgusted by them. This is because Hornby just take a picture of everyone weak points, even those we won't see and/or admit.
  And the ending, som ... (continue)

  The best Horny book to date; again, Hornby create characters that you can't love nor hate, and the more you read, the more you feel both attracted and disgusted by them. This is because Hornby just take a picture of everyone weak points, even those we won't see and/or admit.
  And the ending, somewhat non-conclusive, is another point in that theory: there's not a good way or a bad one, just a life you can live or not.

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  Fito said on Feb 12, 2008 | Add your feedback

• 3 people find this helpful

  

  The two most common complaints I have heard when discussing this book are also the two most common compliments I have heard it given; one being that the ending can be seen as relatively non-conclusive and the other being that none of the characters are easily pegged as "good" or "bad". My personal ... (continue)

  The two most common complaints I have heard when discussing this book are also the two most common compliments I have heard it given; one being that the ending can be seen as relatively non-conclusive and the other being that none of the characters are easily pegged as "good" or "bad". My personal opinion is that Hornby presents some excellent characters here, but doesn't necessarily tell the best story.

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  Bossdog said on Aug 3, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  an unusual story, but too random to be liked

  Unusual plot, good storytelling from Nick Hornby considering the four key characters are so random and different. The four main characters narrate the story in turn which really helped me to understand the characters.

  Nevertheless, it was an unsatisfactory read. The underlying plot is just too ... (continue)

  Unusual plot, good storytelling from Nick Hornby considering the four key characters are so random and different. The four main characters narrate the story in turn which really helped me to understand the characters.

  Nevertheless, it was an unsatisfactory read. The underlying plot is just too weak. Four strangers who attempted suisde on new year's eve somehow become friends? Hmm... not convincing at all. Besides, it's so difficult to relate to any of the characters. Character portrayal is poor. None of the characters stood out for me. In fact, all four characters came across to me as odd and boring. Sometimes characters who may be odd and boring in its own right could form wonderful chemistry between themselves and form great reads, but it did not happen in this case sadly.

  Disappointing read, but I won't write off Nick Hornby because even with a book like this, he still manages to demonstrate his superb storytelling ability.

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  olivia said on Jul 16, 2008 | Add your feedback

• 

  It's not only about irony which Hornby gets on to explore drama. Reading throught his pages is wearing lenses enabling you to laught at death and dark life chapters or brainstorming on meaningless details of human being as well.

  Call it distortion, if you like. I call it figuring out the way we ar ... (continue)

  It's not only about irony which Hornby gets on to explore drama. Reading throught his pages is wearing lenses enabling you to laught at death and dark life chapters or brainstorming on meaningless details of human being as well.

  Call it distortion, if you like. I call it figuring out the way we are: cus it's our personal lens; we put it on every day and our personal dimensions - which affect every day, feeling or action - will ensue.

  At the top of a roof, small things can appear even smaller.
  Go downstairs, have a look on ordinary: there's no wonder, but a lot worthing. Yep, a mess, but a worthing meaningless mess is enough to not jump sometimes. The game of changing our own settled dimensions, it's a good reason itself.

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  Daniela * said on Sep 21, 2011 | Add your feedback

• 

  Four blokes (Hornby's frequent expression) on the roof of a London building want to jump off to end their miserable lives, but they only resolve to jump into each other with some comical effects. So tragedy will become a kind of game where no one knows the rules. Final score: few funny points for t ... (continue)

  Four blokes (Hornby's frequent expression) on the roof of a London building want to jump off to end their miserable lives, but they only resolve to jump into each other with some comical effects. So tragedy will become a kind of game where no one knows the rules. Final score: few funny points for the author, he can do much more better. The four narrative voices are efficient for the first part, they help to understand the characters, but get really annoying in the long run because their succession interrupts the story's progress.

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  Elena Mc said on Aug 3, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  Four people met in the New Year's Eve on the top of the roof of a building in central London...to throw them down of it. But their suicidal intentions turn in an unexpected way.
  Although the characterization of each character is very strong and realistic, I didn't find the story very appealing, funn ... (continue)

  Four people met in the New Year's Eve on the top of the roof of a building in central London...to throw them down of it. But their suicidal intentions turn in an unexpected way.
  Although the characterization of each character is very strong and realistic, I didn't find the story very appealing, funny just from time to time. Not convincing.

  Is this helpful?

  Ecila82 said on Jul 23, 2010 | Add your feedback

See all 22 comments

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 352 Pages
• Edition: Reprint
• ISBN-10: 1594481938
• ISBN-13: 9781594481932
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade
• Pub date: May 02, 2006
• Dimensions: 1290 mm x 839 mm x 194 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages 繁體書, Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Livros em Português, Libri Italiani, Svenska böcker

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