A LONG WAY DOWN by Nick Hornby
Suicide - not a subject one normally associates with humour and entertainment. In this novel, the author somehow manages to walk the fine line between serious and funny, managing to entertain the reader and make them laugh, yet at the same time never straying far from the desperation that drives people to want to kill themselves.
The reasons for killing oneself are many and varied but they seem to come back to people feeling as if they have lost control of their lives and there is no way at all to get it back. In this novel, we have Martin - motive - shame. He is mid-40s, ex-family man, disgraced TV celebrity, convicted and imprisoned for having sex with an under age girl. There is Maureen, early 50s, alone, only caregiver to a severely disabled teenage son; her motive hopelessness. There is JJ, an American who has failed in his dream to become a rock musician, and also lost his girlfriend; motive - disappointment. Finally Jess, 16 year old daughter of a politician, usual teenage issues, nothing out of the ordinary except extra doses of precociousness; her motive - no one loves her - like I said ordinary teenage girl looking for attention.
One New Year's Eve, these four, purely by chance find themselves on top of a building in London, aptly named Toppers' House, for obvious reasons. Because none of them want to be the first to jump they end up leaving the building to find Jess's missing boyfriend so as to find out why he dumped her. Very bizarre I know, why would four very different people band together on New Year's Eve to deal to some flaky teenage boy. I don't think they really know either, other than it gives them a united sense of purpose and something to do instead of arguing on the roof of a multi story building. It also keeps them together, this very small group of what many would call a bunch of nutters - safety in numbers.
Once the boyfriend situation is sorted out, the group instinctively stick together simply because they have nowhere else to go, and slowly, over a period of 90 days, the four of them begin to put their lives back together, meeting up fairly often and working through each others' various crises. The slightly incredible thing about this story is that these four very unhappy misfits who would never normally have anything to do with each other somehow manage to get on and begin to heal.
There is no getting away from the fact that none of them are particularly likeable, and they are never really very nice to each other. They obviously don't like themselves, this carries over into their interactions with each other, and the world at large. But, slowly things change, and in March, 90 days after New Year's Eve, they are all still alive, bickering away with each other, and also trying to move on with their lives. And, strangely enough, I found myself liking these four people, admiring them for their efforts and encouraging them onwards.
The story is narrated in turn by the four characters, so the reader gets each person's back story, as well as a version of events told with a slightly different perspective by each. The key to the whole story, is of course communication, so often lacking in the lives of people who want to kill themselves - reaching out for help and not knowing how. So there is a lot of conversation and dialogue in this story, because as we all know, a problem shared is a problem halved, and talking is the way to do it.
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