Review: A Long Way Down

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a really fun read. The ending was a little anticlimactic and predictable but the ride getting there was so much fun that it was forgiven. I'm familiar with the movies based on Nick Hornby novels (e.g. About a Boy and High Fidelity) but this is the first novel I've read by him.

The story revolves around four very different people who decide to commit suicide on new years eve at the same location.  They interrupt each other in the process and become an unlikely "gang" of friends - sort of.  They don't really like each other much, but feel some attachment and responsibility for talking each other out of "offing" themselves.

The concept of a suicide jump being interrupted multiple times by different people trying to make the same suicide jump was a great concept. The different personalities thrown together by nothing more than their desire to kill themselves was really interesting and made for some great humor throughout the book.  I laughed out loud several times.  It isn't the best book I've read this year, but it was worth the read.

There is a lot of cursing, and I mean a lot.  That should bother me more than it does, but I give you other readers fair warning.