A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby

So I realize this isn't my usual fare. There's not nearly enough supernatural stuff in it. But when you try new things, most of the thrill is not knowing what you're going to get, isn't it? Also, I think this book placed highly on the New York Times book list or something. And I like the cover - it's four people's feet floating in a sea of clouds, and that's just surreal enough to be both romantic and really absurd. And I think that's a good way of beginning to describe this book: romantic and absurd. Except that I might have to take back the romantic part later on - we'll see. Oh yea, this is another one from those four boxes of books.

The chapters are named after the four main characters, so there aren't really chapter names. Which makes me think that you could probably read the book out of sequence, except that then maybe it wouldn't make much sense now, would it? So they're called Martin, Maureen, JJ and Jess. MM and JJ. The only thing they have in common is that they wanted to commit suicide on New Year's Eve at the same place, and then they kind of got into each others' way. Then everything begins.

As you would expect with suicidal people, they each have a bunch of problems dragging them down. So it took some time and chapters before the whole character development thing came on. Before that, though, a lot of random stuff happened just because they didn't know what to do with themselves, and that's kind of a very human dilemma. The randomness of all these semi unchained events, as told by four different voices, is what would pull you in. That's a feat in itself - not many writers, certainly not me - can create such drastically different people on the same page and switch voices, just like that.

When they interact, which they almost always do, it's even stranger and more hilarious, because there are four unhappy unfriendly people insulting each other for the company, because they have got nowhere else to go. When you think about it, when an author writes a conversation between characters, and all the characters are part of that author, it's like the author's talking to himself. At least that's why it's so difficult for me, but you know, kudos to all the more successful authors and playwrights and screenwriters who can do great conversations, and Nick Hornby's certainly one of these.

Every time I read a book and finish it very quickly, I don't stop thinking like the voice of that book for a day or two. So I imagine that this is what's happening now, because I just finished this book, and I keep having this urge to type a sentence, put in a comma, and then ask a one word question, like "So this is how we do it, right?" I think this is because that's how Jess talks. A lot. JJ does that to some extent too, but he's a hipster and a musician, so he does that whole "Rock on, man" type of thing. And Martin pretends to be cultured, when he might be even more savage than Jess, who's really just thoughtless. I always go on like this with character commentary.

It's kind of like the psychological profile of four people, but smashed together into a giant mass, that somehow ends up being coherent and even inspiring. Or if not inspiring, then at least thought provoking, which is what most texts are supposed to do, anyway. I'm pretty sure this book is fiction, but it feels like nonfiction, because the characters could be real people. Like your next door neighbor or something. Without talking about the emotions specifically, the story comes out with a lot of heart. There is a plot, but it's not as structured as a science fiction or fantasy book, because this kind of story has a different point to it.

Anyway, I can see why Nick Hornby is an award winning author. My boyfriend said that he has High Fidelity, another book that this guy wrote, so maybe I'll look into that. But then, of course, there are the rest of the books from those boxes that I actually wanted to go into. And some more books I bought. It's like necessary for me, because I only seem to buy books, food and clothing. Well um, that's neither here nor there.