Book Thoughts: A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby

I haven't blogged in SUCH a long time. I work full time now and really when I get home I just want to have a shower, have dinner, watch a bit of TV, and go to bed. Having said that, I'm determined to put up at least a couple of posts a week on here.  I finished reading A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby a good while ago now and since then I've read Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (finally!) and am now reading The Humans by Matt Haig which I'm enjoying so far - so reviews of those will be coming soon.  I'd also like to do a post at some point about Angela Carter; I based my dissertation around her work and am forever fascinated by her writing.

Anyway. I enjoyed this book. I like Nick Hornby's writing; About A Boy is one of my favourite stories and I also enjoyed High Fidelity, but even though I liked this one, I didn't think it really matched up to the other two. In a nutshell, the story revolves around Martin, Jess, Maureen, and JJ, four people who, for various reasons, want to end their lives. They meet at the top of London's tallest skyscraper on New Year's Eve and end up exchanging stories and agreeing that they won't be throwing themselves from the roof - for the time being, anyway.  For the next year they meet up at regular intervals and attempt to right (or at least come to terms with) the state their lives are in. Martin, a disgraced TV presenter, tries to resurrect his shattered public image; Maureen, whose life is consumed by caring for her disabled son, looks for ways to add some variety to her days; Jess, angry, 'wild-child' daughter of a politician, attempts to confront the resentment she feels towards her parents; JJ, high-school dropout and failed musician, tries to look beyond a life flipping burgers, and discover 'who he really is'.  

I thought the idea of the book was good, and I like Hornby's writing, but I just didn't find the characters as convincing as I thought I would. Maureen felt the most authentic to me, but Jess just seemed like a moody, angry teenager, and JJ was just a guy whose band had broken up and now didn't know what to do with his life. I don't know...I just didn't really connect with them. Might be just me, though.

There we go! I'll do a review of Lolita next (although everyone and their dog has read that book, so I'm pretty late to the game). 

Byee!

twitter: @stephylouise

instagram: stephanielou__x