Cultural Dessert

‘A Long Way Down’ by Nick Hornby

5 May 2006

This week I read Nick Hornby’s latest novel, ‘A Long Way Down’. Four people from different backgrounds and lifestyles – including a daytime TV presenter and a single mother with a severely disabled child – meet on the roof of a tower block where they all, coincidentally, planned to commit suicide. They decide not to go through with it, for now, and become unlikely friends, supporting each other in their search for meaning and hope. The premise sounds more like a Ben Elton novel and I found it a little weak and unbelievable but in the safe hands of Hornby I really grew to like and sympathise with the characters. I enjoyed it.

Labels: Books

posted by Robin Simpson @ 12:59 pm