Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Mar 20, 2008

Raych rated it:

Oh popular authors, I'm always so nervous about you. I mean, on the one hand I always figure that if so many people like you, there must be something good about you. But then, so many people like harlequin romances, and Dane Cook, and Big Brother. People are idiots. Even when they aren't, they can't always be trusted. My friend Amy actually loved Confessions of a Slacker Wife, and my husband really liked The Innocent Man, a.k.a. Was John Grisham Always This Bad And I Just Didn't Notice?, and my More...

2 comments like (35 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Malbadeen rated it:

jump already! and take the book with you.

7 comments like (26 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2007

Mark rated it:

Boy, is there anyone who has offered up more stinkers than Nick flippin' Hornby. And, was he so great to begin with? Even his better, earlier works were marginally good. Nothing life changing.

Which is kinda the point of why he's so awful: he is intentionally trying to be life changing in every book, essay, magazine column or whatever. He thinks he can somehow find the right prose combination for some idea or mindset to click and for it to change one's life ... much like these things More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2007

Trish rated it:

I'm a Nick Hornby fan. And it's more than just enjoying his writing; I have a warm and fuzzy affection for him. So even when one of his books fails to utterly delight and transport me (How to Be Good, for example), I'm still on his side.

Michiko Kakutani clearly has no such affection for Hornby. Her review of A Long Way Down is savage. Her chief complaint is that the book contrives to arrive at an implausibly sappy conclusion. Which is odd, because I think the book admirably avoids e More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2007

Josh rated it:

I didn't get into Hornby for the same reason as everyone else, (they like Jon Cusak in High Fidelity). A Long Way Down was recommended to me by a friend and I needed a light read for the summer so I picked it up.

I have never actually laughed out loud while reading a book until I read this one. Running With Scissors was the closest I came, but Augusten Burroughs was such an unrealistic and absurd character, (which is ironic because he was based on a real person), that it seemed too More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2009

Kat rated it:

I just read this book in two days. It was great. The story is told from four perspectives, and because of the great writing by Hornby you can't set it down mid chapter. You want to race through the chapters to complete each character's thoughts and the picture each one is painting of the same storyline.

What a great concept too, four strangers meet and share a suicidal moment, and end up sharing more because of meeting each other.

Each character was hilarious in their own More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 10, 2009

brook rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

7 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Tracy rated it:

One wouldn't think that a book that begins when the four main characters meet on a roof, each contemplating suicide, could be touching AND funny, but this was. The relationships these characters develop with one another reveal the way that external situations can create unlikely friendships, and how difficult a word like "friend" can be to use or comprehend. To quote the Publishers Weekly review, "If Camus had written a grown-up version of The Breakfast Club, the result might ha More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Imogen rated it:

I didn't realize I hadn't written about this, but Kerry just posted that she is reading it and no review from me came up so I will tell you that I liked this book a lot. I mean, I was surprised at how much I liked it- mostly I picked it up on a whim because I was going on a trip somewhere and a UK edition came in, with the laundry line cover, and I said to myself, huh. I am still ambivalent about Nick Hornby, even though what I've read ( High Fidelity and his brilliant, genius, wonderful Believe More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 20, 2008

Chris rated it:

This book almost deserved one star. The only thing that saved it from being a complete and utter waste of my time was that Nick Horny writes the occasional very witty passage, and there were two (count them, two) observations that I found actually interesting. So that totals about five pages that I actually enjoyed.

The rest was quintessential fluffy drivel, which does have its place, but not when the book is discussing suicide, the meaning of life (or the lack thereof), and other s More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 30, 2011

Alexandra rated it:

Vier Personen treffen sich zu Silvester zufällig auf dem Dach eines Hochhauses, weil sie sich umbringen wollen. Da man bei so einer intimen Aktion aber lieber allein ist, verschieben sie den Termin und beginnen, sich gegenseitig zu helfen. Eine sehr spannde Geschichte, die Hornby da eingefallen ist, mit viel Potenzial, in die Verzweiflung unterschiedlichster Seelen hineinzuschauen, was dem Autor auch sehr gut gelingt.

Leider wird stilistisch alle 2-3 Seiten die Geschichte aus der Persp More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 27, 2008

Steven rated it:

Four characters, and I mean that in every sense of the word, meet on New Years Eve in London and decide to jump off a roof and put an end to their troubles. Two men, two women, three Brits and one American, they suffer from such maladies as an embarrassing and public sex scandal, caring for a vegetative dependent child, the break-up of a band and a girlfriend, and general emotional baggage and family issues. None of those things seem like very good reasons to commit suicide, but that is exactl More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 31, 2008

Joni rated it:

Highly enjoyed this book. The plot was strong, and the characters and their situations were vivid and believable. Lots have people have been saying that they were annoyed by the fact that the four main characters are so stereotypical, but i actually think that that was what made the book work. It was because they were so typically different that their interactions were so funny and interesting...if that makes sense?

The only thing I would say, I was a bit put-off by the huge amount of More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 23, 2007

Colleen rated it:

Sometimes when you listen to a book on audio CD, it's hard to tell if the characters sound so alive because the author wrote them that way, or because the voice actors are brilliant. I'll have to take a look at the actual book to be sure, but Hornby's use of fillers such as "like," "you know," and "whatever" made his dialogue writing quite realistic.

That's a good thing when an entire book is composed of inner monologues. If only this book existed when More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 20, 2007

Luke rated it:

Interesting weaving of 4 first person accounts of a group that meets on a roof just before they attempt to commit suicide. At times, I wanted to put it down and give it up, namely at the point that the teenage character takes over the narrative. Much like Harry Potter in the 5th book, fictional teenagers are done best when they drive you nuts as an adult reader. Each character is brilliantly deep, and the title of the book is a metaphor for the further falling that someone can do after conside More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 26, 2007

Nancy rated it:

In "A Long Way Down," four very different people are brought together by their shared desire to commit suicide. Hornby tells the story in first-person narrative, switching between each of the four characters. He tries to make their voices distinct from each other, but he does this very superficially. For example, the teenager uses a lot of slang and curse words, and the matron winces mentally whenever the teenager curses. Otherwise, their voices are identical: very breezy, chatty, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 17, 2007

Reader rated it:

So I recently finished A Long Way Down by Nick Hornsby. I really liked the film High Fidelity. I know we could all get distracted by the fact that I saw the movie without reading the book, but this is one of the rare times I haven't read the book. Besides, it would detract from my point. By now you are probably asking what my point is. My point is the F word. Now I can appreciate a good vulgarity when placed appropriately. I can even understand their judicious use in time of stress or high spiri More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 21, 2008

Kate rated it:

I had no idea what this book was about. Someone recommended the author to me and I couldnt find the book they recommended. This book was on sale for $5.67 so I figured what the hell.

This turned out to be one of the best books Ive read in a long time. The manner in which its written is different from anything that I have experienced before. The back and forth between characters happens so fast that it almost has the spirit and appeal of British comedies. If you dont appreciate the Br More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2008

Elle rated it:

I tried to finish this book on two separate occasions, and could not. It kept loosing me. I just did not care about the characters enough.

Nick Hornby is a hit of miss for me, but I like his clever cheek enough to keep trying.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 02, 2009

Kelly rated it:

Someone recommended this book to me. And, to be honest, I thought that it would be really drug out and depressing. I mean, it's about five people who wanted to kill themselves. However, Hornby uses humor and gritty friction between the characters to lighten the novel as a whole, while not omitting the seriousness of their situations. I laughed throughout the novel. But, towards the middle of the book, I realized that as crazy as these characters might sound, I related to some of them. I related More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 26, 2009

Prashant rated it:

Up, Up and away !

Nick Hornby does it again.. he does it with the same characteristic panache and wit...but instead of this one central lovable (loser) character, he has 4 distinct voices and people who love grow to love and care for as you savor your way through this book.
Martin Sharp(disgraced British TV presenter), Jess( 18 years old, volatile and opinionated), JJ (American has-been rockstar in London) and Maureen (god fearing, single mum), meet in circumstances that can only More...

0 comments like

Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

Nick Hornby seems to be a likeable guy, which may make critical examination of his work a tricky business for some__not that his alleged personality prevents some well-known critics from outright hooliganism. Sure, Hornby the journalist sounds a lot like Hornby the novelist; that's part of his charm. It is easy to imagine his early characters as stand-ins for their author. But as he expands his fictional milieu, Hornby's distinct voice seems to be a double-edged sword. Can that voice be embodied

More...

0 comments like

Feb 01, 2009

Carrie rated it:

I enjoyed the heck* out of this book. I had read Hornby's High Fidelity, and liked it, and read his collections of literary essays, The Pollysylabic Spree and Housekeeping and the Dirt, and I occasionally read his blog, and I must say, I just like the way he writes. I mean, it isn't Proust, but the books are funny, and well written and he has something to say (largely about figuring out how to live your own life best you can, and be as happy as you can), and I just enjoy them. And it isn't as More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 07, 2009

Reszzpati rated it:

In his forth novel, the author known for his genre of 'laddism' dwell deep into the matter of 'life on the edge' as his characters were intending to commit suicide (by jumping from a 15-story building- hence the title ' A Long Way Down'), each with their own reason.
Readers of his three previous novels would anticipate his pattern on precise, wry understanding of a certain kind of modestly privileged, emotionally clumsy white 30-something male; he skillfully pinpointed habits and emotiona More...

0 comments like

Nov 25, 2008

Carrie rated it:

Dear Nick Hornby,

I am having mixed feelings about you right now. I just finished listening to your recent release and enjoyed it very much. The story about 4 very different people who meet on the roof of a building where they planned to commit suicide is great. It was enthralling to find out how they all interact with each other, and what happens to them when they decide to leave the roof rather than jump that night. I love the "90 day" idea, especially. I was addicted to More...

0 comments like

Dec 20, 2011

Pete rated it:

A few words on Nick Hornby's most recent "adult" novel, A Long Way Down, which I just finished reading. (His latest book, Slam, is generally considered "young adult", though both of the non-young adults in our household will soon be reading it, after I gave it to Julie for Christmas.) Though the opening scene is fairly contrived (it seems rather unlikely that four such disparate individuals would simultaneously gather, on New Year's Eve, on the same rooftop in order to commit More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2011

Christina (Reading Thru The Night) rated it:

Summary:

Four people meet on top of a building New Year’s Eve night planning to plummet to their death.

The characters in six words:

JJ: Depressed musician who’ll never be famous
Martin: Newscaster likes young girls; marriage over.
Maureen: Dowdy mom cares for vegetable son.
Jess: Borderline Personality who’s sister goes missing.

The NYT’s says: “At its heart, [it] isn’t really about suicide itself, anyway…it’s more about what happe More...

0 comments like

Sep 22, 2011

Shaune added it

A few years ago I read High Fidelity and I loved it, so I figured why not check out A Long Way Down, too. Nick Hornby is typically a pretty funny author who definitely enjoys a dark sense of humor. This was evident in this book, which centers around four people on the brink of committing suicide.

Four people met on New Years Eve on the roof of a very tall building. Each of them were of different ages and backgrounds, but what brought them together was their desire to jump to their de More...

0 comments like

Aug 08, 2011

Heather rated it:

It's hard not to like a Nick Hornby book. You really have to try. I found this book hilarious, and that's saying something when you recognize that the subject of the story is suicide. The reasoning and psyche of the gang formed on Topper's House (aptly named) is so interesting. I found myself thinking, would these be my next steps after coming down from the roof? I found myself scratching my head, wondering why the characters react to certain situations the way they do. It's never very cle More...

0 comments like

Aug 05, 2011

Stephen rated it:

Four people accidentally meeting on top of a London building from which each plans to leap to his/her death would not seem a promising beginning for a humorous novel. But "A Long Way Down" is both funny and, at times, poignant. The point-of-view shifts from one of the four characters to the other throughout the novel. Except sharing an urge to commit suicide, they have little in common. They form a sort of "support group" however and begin to meet regularly, for a while ev More...

0 comments like

reviews