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writing pool
A Collection of Reviews, Short Stories and Essays
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007  A Long Way Down is the one book Nick Hornby has written that I have read not just once, but thrice. It is also the only one (out of the five books of his I own) that I have actually managed to finish in one read. This, of course, is not to say that Hornby is a boring writer. He is anything but. His witty, dry sense of humor never fails to amuse—I even had the strongest desire to start a business selling music records after particularly enjoying High Fidelity. However, A Long Way Down was the only one that really made quite the impact on me. It tells the tale of four lost souls—Martin, JJ, Jess, and Maureen—who connect unexpectedly one New Year’s Eve after encountering one another on the roof of Topper’s House, a London junction widely known as the final destination for those looking to end their lives. All four characters come from diverse backgrounds and have altogether different reasons for wanting to meet their inevitable demise sooner rather than later. Martin, a former TV talk show host looks to escape life and the scandal caused after a prison stint for statutory rape; single-mom and devout Catholic Maureen would rather face death than to continue caring after her disabled adult son; 18-year-old Jess is distraught after a break-up and, as we later find, is also the hormonally disturbed daughter of a prominent politician; and, finally, JJ, the only American among the bunch, initially claims a fatal illness as his main reason for offing himself when, in reality, he had lost his girlfriend and his rock-and-roll band and is experiencing jadedness after the loss of his life’s purpose. A Long Way Down, with its four different voices, begins with suicide, but, eventually we discover that it is really a book about the many complexities and complications in life. We find ourselves either hating or identifying with each of the characters. I, myself, admit to being endeared by JJ’s, with all his ruminations on art, music and quotes by Oscar Wilde. I totally understood his reason for initially lying about the reason for his apparent need to jump of the roof of Topper’s House as I would have probably done the same. He was the last to share about his struggles but upon listening to the reasons of the previous three characters, he felt his paled in comparison. After all, imagine how lame “I lost my girl and my band” would sound after reasons like statutory rape, divorce and sheer exhaustion from caring for a disabled adult? Something we only see in B-movies. Spare me the embarrassment, thank you very much. I’d rather announce I couldn’t live with cancer or AIDS. But that’s just me. However, we each have our individual crosses to bear and it is here that we realize that the pain we are feeling, no matter how explosive or frustrating or scandalous or even shallow the cause may be, should never be compared to that of somebody else’s. It is not a contest of who is experiencing the worst emotional baggage. We all feel the same heaviness in the end. And it is when we think that we can no longer bear the burden that we entertain thoughts of suicide. It would be utterly dishonest of us if we do not admit that at one point or the other, we have entertained thoughts of ending life sooner rather than later; even if it may have been just a fleeting thought that lasted ten seconds or something that has extended for weeks or months or even years. What I found most interesting about A Long Way Down is the fact that although it is a novel about suicide, it exudes life. After our four characters agree to, at the very least, find a semblance of closure in their respective lives and would again converge at Topper’s House on the next overrated holiday—February 14, Valentines Day (the tragedy of it all)—to see once and for all if they have decided to give life a second chance or were merely postponing their inevitable plummets to their doom, a fascinating journey takes place. One that was everything but easy. Our four characters rarely found comfort in their fellow survivor as some of their personalities tend to clash with one or the other. They were a bickering lot and what little solace they found in each other’s presence would always be laced with irritation, annoyance and a great deal of pity—mostly directed towards Maureen. The book shows us the lowest levels of human nature as seen in the characters’ attempts in adding more chaos to their already miserable lives instead of actually ruminating on the purpose of their existence. For a time, it seemed that everyone would end up killing each other. Well, all except Maureen, who found the comfort and community she needed in the presence of the three new people in her life. Obviously, Hornby is not one to write about melodramatic self-pity sessions or irritatingly exaggerated moments of salvation. You will find nothing of the sort here. Each of the characters’ narrations are done in a matter-of-fact, almost emotionally detached way that makes it a relatively light read (although the incessant bickering just might give you a headache) given the heaviness of the topic. A Long Way Down provides us with the perfect venue—our very own Topper’s House—to lightly ponder on topics like suicide, life, death and mortality without the danger of us having to succumb and plummet into the darkness and misery the characters in the book are supposedly feeling. In the end, we all realize that suicide is never the answer to anybody’s problems and that what we perceive as our darkest moments actually add color into our otherwise dull existence and are mere preludes to the uphill climb that is to happen next.
posted by Tricia @ 4:03 AM 0 Comments:
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