A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby
Penguin, $120
Nick Hornby is a funny writer. This he has proved in books about football, music, parenting and the cost of infidelity. Those novels may have lent themselves to laughs, but not so, one would assume, A Long Way Down, featuring four characters who plan to end their lives. Hornby's gallows humour largely works - which means his novel is at least partly a success - but the plot fails him. Having four protagonists finding themselves lining up to throw themselves off a London tower block is just too contrived. But it does provide delicious dialogue by the foursome: a married man convicted of carnal knowledge of a 15-year-old girl; a single mum who has spent her life caring for her disabled son; an unstable young woman suffering a breakup; and an American rocker in limbo since his band crumbled and his girlfriend left him. Hornby, to his credit, doesn't pull out the violins, tame his caustic tongue or provide rosy solutions. Still, the believability factor is low. None of his characters seems the suicidal type, and the despair just doesn't wrench the gut.