To jump? Or not to jump?

Anthony Rodriguez


A Long Way Down

By: Nick Hornby

Four pairs of shoes, eight feet, hundreds of feet above the ground.

Jess, JJ, Maureen, and Martin, four strangers with many opposites, different backgrounds, different problems, but all with the same intention: to jump off of a building in South London, on New Year's Eve. They all have this intention to commit one of the worst things a human being can do to themselves… but they choose to assess their problems instead, rather than jumping and regretting it all after it’s too late. First it’s Jess, on New Year's Day, trying to track down the person who partially caused her to end up on that roof. Then soon after Jess, it’s Maureen, Martin, and JJ. They all want to fix their problems, but sometimes they do the opposite, chasing it, or even embracing it, without realizing it.

This book, to me, has been quite an amazing story. The concept wholeheartedly intrigues me. This concept of having multiple characters wading through a great deal of problems all the meanwhile trying to support each other without killing each other is a major selling point. But sometimes I find some of the content a bit, "oversaturated," in the form of repetitive explanations. Not necessarily the material of the explanations, but more of how it’s delivered.

Personally, I think the dialogue and narration is going to be interpreted differently by others, and how much information you think is “enough.” Despite this “oversaturation” I find the dialogue and narration paired splendidly with the characteristics of the protagonists. In regards to dialogue and narration, I believe that some readers may find the book a bit disorienting at times. The concept of having more than two characters is innovative, but distorted. After each line of dialogue, it doesn’t say who had spoken, but if the author had chosen to do this, it would’ve made the book mundane. So if you’re able to get past the confusion of the two-plus character dialogue, you’ll find the beauty in said dialogue, and of how the author does an excellent job of executing a creative and expressive setting, based on the personalities of the characters, even if there may be some degrading and vulgar language, “‘Oh Christ,’ he [Martin]  said when he first saw it. I could feel myself [Maureen] blushing. ‘Is this your suicide note?’ ‘Cool. Read it out,’ said Jess. ‘Mine are crap, but I bet hers is worse.’ ‘Yours are crap?’ said JJ. ‘Meaning, there are, like, what, hundreds of them?’ ‘I’m always writing them,’ said Jess. She seemed quite cheerful about it” (54). The baseline theme of four people who all want to end it all is, depressing, dark, cold hearted, but the characters aspirations to overcoming their problems is empowering, strong, encouraging, and leads them down a long road, “‘Good,’ said Martin. And when he said that, you could tell that instead of killing ourselves, we were all going to come down from the roof and look for Jess’s boyfriend, or whatever he was” (55). Based on the characters, you may share a similar connection, and if you do, this book may truly impact you in a good, positive way, and/or possibly a bad, negative way, but this negativity may explicitly be weak, or strong, based on your interpretation. The central conflict, issue, or problem (whatever you’d like to call it) can greatly change one's view on this topic; especially because it revolves around a heavy, grim topic, suicide. The book and do a great deal of convincing one that suicide is more to it than a person just wants to die. The book goes into detail of why these four seemingly normal (for the most part) people, all make the decision to plan an event that will end up with them taking their own lives, “[JJ] It’s more, you know, Oh, OK, your band was f---ed up, you were at the end of the line with your music, which was all you wanted to do your whole life, plus you broke up with your girlfriend” (28), “[Martin] But two years ago Martin Sharp was a different person. I still had my job. I still had a wife. I hadn’t slept with a fifteen-year-old. I hadn’t been to prison” (10), “[Jess] I launched in. I just went, My name’s Jess and I’m eighteen years old and, see, I’m here because I had some family problems that I don’t need to go into. And then I split up with this guy, Chas. And he owes me an explanation. Because he didn’t say anything. He just went” (42-43), “[Maureen] My eyes filled with tears, and JJ noticed. ‘What are you, a f---ing idiot?’ he said to Jess. ‘Look what you’ve done.’ ‘Sor-ry,’ said Jess. ‘Just an idea.’ But that wasn’t why I was crying. I was crying because all I wanted in the world, the only thing that would make me want to live, was for Matty to die. And knowing why I was crying just made me cry more” (39).

The audience that I think would enjoy this book is for those into a bit of action, drama, and possibly something emotional. This book isn’t for the faint of heart. If you’re truly a human being, there is in almost no way that you cannot express some sympathy for at least one of the characters in the book, as the hardships they face are truly an emotional roller coaster. I would definitely recommend this book to those looking for a rich story and an interesting theme.