A Long Way Down
Encyclopedia
A Long Way Down is a novel
written by British
author Nick Hornby
, published in 2005. It is a dark comedy, playing off the themes of suicide
, angst
, depression
and promiscuity
.
The story is written in the first-person narrative from the points of view of the four main characters, Martin, Maureen, Jess and JJ. These four strangers happen to meet on the roof of a high building called Topper's House in London
on New Year's Eve
, each with the intent of committing suicide
. Their plans for death in solitude, however, are ruined when they meet. The novel recounts their misadventures as they decide to come down from the roof alive - however temporarily that may be.
Disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp, the lonely housewife Maureen (51 years old), the unsuccessful musician JJ and the rude teenager Jess (18 years old) meet at Topper's House in London at New Year's Eve. They all want to commit suicide by jumping from the roof. Their plans for death in solitude, however, are ruined when they meet. After telling their individual stories to the others, they decide to hold off on jumping and to protect themselves. Thus a group of four unfortunate and very individual people forms. Jess' condition not to jump is that they help her to find her ex-boyfriend Chas. So they take a taxi and drive to the party they suppose Chas to be at. After finding and talking to Chas they decide to go to Martin's place where they find Penny, who has obviously been crying. She accuses Martin of cheating on her because he had left the party they'd both attended that evening without any explanation.
The next morning the newspapers claim that Martin has slept with Jess after Chas gives them false information. Jess' father takes her to task because the whole thing is very awkward for him. He is the Junior Secretary of Education and has a reputation to lose. Out of fear that her father learns she wants to kill herself, she doesn't deny it.
The following newspaper edition is about a suicidal-pact between Martin and Jess. Jess' father asks Martin to clear up the accusations and he denies that he slept with Jess. After the conversation, her father asks Martin to protect Jess and gives him money. Afterwards, a reporter calls JJ wanting to know why they decided not to jump, but JJ refuses to discuss it.
Later Jess calls Maureen and they decide to organize a meeting at Maureen's place. At the meeting, Jess suggests that they try to profit from the suicidal-report in the newspaper. Her idea is to confess to the press that they saw an angel who saved them from jumping. Martin, Maureen and JJ don't like the idea and they try to convince Jess out of talking to the press.
The next morning they find out that Jess told a reporter, Linda, that they saw an angel that looked like Matt Damon. Jess also promised Linda an interview with Martin, Maureen and JJ. Although they are upset with Jess' behavior, they decide to do the interview. Linda uses the interview to attack Martin in the press. Thus Martin is fired from his cable TV “FeetUp TV”. But he receives a second chance by promising to his boss that the other three will be guests in his show. The show is a disaster and Martin loses his job. At another TV show Jess admits that the angel-story was not true.
Later, JJ decides that the four of them have to go on vacation. Martin, Jess and JJ help Maureen to find a place for Matty. One week later they sit in a plane to Tenerife.
On the second day, Jess sees a girl who looks very similar to her lost sister Jen. Jess bothers the girl and they have a fight. Out of frustration Jess gets drunk and the police have to take her back to the hotel.
JJ meets a girl that knows his old band and they spend the night together.
Martin decides to leave the hotel after a fight with Jess. During his absence from the others he thinks about his life and decides that he has made no mistakes and he decides to blame other people for how his life has turned out.
In the taxi to the airport they talk about their vacation and plan another meeting for Saint Valentine's Day.
They meet at 8 o'clock on the roof of Topper's House on Saint Valentine's Day. While they have a conversation, they detect a young man who is planning to jump from the roof. They try to stop him from committing suicide but he jumps. They decide to go home and to meet the following afternoon at Starbucks
.
Martin tells them about a newspaper article he read according to which people who want to commit suicide need 90 days to overcome their ambition. So they decide to wait with their decision until the 31st of March.
Maureen and Jess decide to visit Martins ex-wife Cindy to bring her back to him. Cindy Sharp lives with her kids in Torley Heath and has a new partner Paul, who is blind. Cindy explains to them that Martin made many mistakes and that he didn't take care of his children.
After that, Jess organizes a meeting in the basement of Starbucks. She invites all relatives of the four. All in all seventeen people appear, but the meeting is a disaster. Jess and her parents are screaming at each other because her mother claims her that she had stolen a pair of earrings of Jen out of Jen's untouched room. While they are fighting Jess runs out of the Starbucks. JJ and a former member of his band are leaving the basement to have a fight and Martin has an argument with one of Maureen's nurses because he claims him to flirt with Penny. Maureen is the only one of the four who is still present. She talks to Jess' parents and utters the speculation that Jen maybe had come back and took the earrings. The nurses Sean and Stephen help Maureen to bring Matty home and on the way Sean asks her if she is interested to join his quiz-team. At the quiz, and old man from the team offers Maureen a job in a newspaper-store.
When Jess comes back from her trip to London bridge her mother apologizes for her behavior. Jess accepts the apology.
Maureen, JJ and Martin have new jobs now. Martin teaches pupils and wants to start a new life, JJ is a busker and is happy to make music again and Maureen works in a newspaper-store.
The ninety days have passed and they meet in front of the Topper's House again. They decide to go on the roof again. On top, while watching the London Eye
they realize that their lives are not so bad. They decide to wait with killing themselves for another six months.
above the London Underground
station in north London.
As with several of Hornby's earlier books, it seems likely that A Long Way Down will be adapted for the screen. Johnny Depp
bought the rights to the book before it was even published and has since hired writer D.V. DeVincentis, who previously wrote the script for the film High Fidelity
, to write the screenplay. Depp is also quoted on the back of the paperback edition as saying that the book is "Masterful … some of the finest writing, and some of the most outstanding characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading."
reported the book had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
, published in 2005. It is a dark comedy, playing off the themes of suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, angst
Angst
Angst is an English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety . It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil...
, depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
and promiscuity
Promiscuity
In humans, promiscuity refers to less discriminating casual sex with many sexual partners. The term carries a moral or religious judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships...
.
The story is written in the first-person narrative from the points of view of the four main characters, Martin, Maureen, Jess and JJ. These four strangers happen to meet on the roof of a high building called Topper's House in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
, each with the intent of committing suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Their plans for death in solitude, however, are ruined when they meet. The novel recounts their misadventures as they decide to come down from the roof alive - however temporarily that may be.
Characters
- Martin Sharp - Martin Sharp is a celebrity. We don't know his exact age but he is described as a middle-aged man. Martin's life was perfect: he had a wife and two little daughters, a well-paid job and was successful. He was host of a famous show called “Rise and Shine with Penny and Martin” but Martin made the mistake of sleeping with a 15 years and 250 days old girl (a 115 day gap to legality), for which he spent three months in prison. This made him even more popular as his case was stripped in the yellow press. When he is released from prison he discovers that his marriage is ruined. From that point he works for a cable TV channel with low popularity (FeetUp TV) and has an affair with Penny, his former colleague. He does not make an effort to see his daughters or to clarify the tense situation with his wife. He's very unhappy about his situation and feels that he has "pissed his life away" and that's why he wants to end his life.
- Maureen - Maureen is a 51-year-old single mother of a disabled son named Matty. Her whole life is turning around Matty, for whom she is a very sacrificial mother. Before she got Matty she was employed and outgoing. This has changed because she has to care for Matty the whole day. She has no freedom and free time except the services at church she attends every Sunday. Maureen lives in a small flat with her son Matty, who has his own room which she decorates for him even though she can't be sure that he realizes it. She does not have much money, because caring for a disabled son is not easy and leaves no time to work. Maureen has many dreams such as going on a vacation, but she is isolating herself more and more from her surrounding. She is trapped in this difficult situation. She wants to get rid of her problems, which seems impossible to her. That is why she wants to commit suicide.
- Jess Crichton - Jess is an eighteen-year-old girl with family problems. She does not have real friends. Jess is a person who pisses people off very quickly with her direct and rude character because she says everything that comes to her mind. Jess' father is a local politician and the family is completed by her mother. Her sister Jen, who is really important to her, left the family a few years ago and is thought to have committed suicide. The whole family, especially the mother and Jess, are still very upset about it. Jess uses a very slangy language and uses the word "fuck" quite often. She does not have a very close relationship to any of the other three characters because she does not respect their feelings and she talks to them in a very aggressive way all the time. She often argues with Martin because it bothers her that he is everything she dislikes: educated and rather arrogant, features that fit to her father, too. Her relationship to her parents is tense because her mother accuses her of having stolen a pair of earrings from her sister Jen which the mother had left in Jen's untouched room. She is the one who convinces the group not to jump immediately but, instead, to find her ex-boyfriend. She wants to commit suicide by jumping from the tower block because of her family problems and losing her ex-boyfriend though it's also slightly impulsive, brought on by attending a party downstairs in Toppers House.
- JJ - JJ is an American who came to London with his girlfriend Lizzy. He played in a band called “Big Yellow” and toured across the whole UK. For Lizzy he gave up his dream of becoming a rock star, the band broke up and Lizzy dumped him. But the dream of becoming successful still exists in his heart. Now he earns money by delivering pizza, a fact that he is really unhappy with. He compares his own ambition for suicide with the ambitions of well-known musicians and also compares the four people on the roof with a band he calls “Topper's House Four”.
Plot
- First Part:
Disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp, the lonely housewife Maureen (51 years old), the unsuccessful musician JJ and the rude teenager Jess (18 years old) meet at Topper's House in London at New Year's Eve. They all want to commit suicide by jumping from the roof. Their plans for death in solitude, however, are ruined when they meet. After telling their individual stories to the others, they decide to hold off on jumping and to protect themselves. Thus a group of four unfortunate and very individual people forms. Jess' condition not to jump is that they help her to find her ex-boyfriend Chas. So they take a taxi and drive to the party they suppose Chas to be at. After finding and talking to Chas they decide to go to Martin's place where they find Penny, who has obviously been crying. She accuses Martin of cheating on her because he had left the party they'd both attended that evening without any explanation.
- Second Part:
The next morning the newspapers claim that Martin has slept with Jess after Chas gives them false information. Jess' father takes her to task because the whole thing is very awkward for him. He is the Junior Secretary of Education and has a reputation to lose. Out of fear that her father learns she wants to kill herself, she doesn't deny it.
The following newspaper edition is about a suicidal-pact between Martin and Jess. Jess' father asks Martin to clear up the accusations and he denies that he slept with Jess. After the conversation, her father asks Martin to protect Jess and gives him money. Afterwards, a reporter calls JJ wanting to know why they decided not to jump, but JJ refuses to discuss it.
Later Jess calls Maureen and they decide to organize a meeting at Maureen's place. At the meeting, Jess suggests that they try to profit from the suicidal-report in the newspaper. Her idea is to confess to the press that they saw an angel who saved them from jumping. Martin, Maureen and JJ don't like the idea and they try to convince Jess out of talking to the press.
The next morning they find out that Jess told a reporter, Linda, that they saw an angel that looked like Matt Damon. Jess also promised Linda an interview with Martin, Maureen and JJ. Although they are upset with Jess' behavior, they decide to do the interview. Linda uses the interview to attack Martin in the press. Thus Martin is fired from his cable TV “FeetUp TV”. But he receives a second chance by promising to his boss that the other three will be guests in his show. The show is a disaster and Martin loses his job. At another TV show Jess admits that the angel-story was not true.
Later, JJ decides that the four of them have to go on vacation. Martin, Jess and JJ help Maureen to find a place for Matty. One week later they sit in a plane to Tenerife.
On the second day, Jess sees a girl who looks very similar to her lost sister Jen. Jess bothers the girl and they have a fight. Out of frustration Jess gets drunk and the police have to take her back to the hotel.
JJ meets a girl that knows his old band and they spend the night together.
Martin decides to leave the hotel after a fight with Jess. During his absence from the others he thinks about his life and decides that he has made no mistakes and he decides to blame other people for how his life has turned out.
In the taxi to the airport they talk about their vacation and plan another meeting for Saint Valentine's Day.
They meet at 8 o'clock on the roof of Topper's House on Saint Valentine's Day. While they have a conversation, they detect a young man who is planning to jump from the roof. They try to stop him from committing suicide but he jumps. They decide to go home and to meet the following afternoon at Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
.
- Third part:
Martin tells them about a newspaper article he read according to which people who want to commit suicide need 90 days to overcome their ambition. So they decide to wait with their decision until the 31st of March.
Maureen and Jess decide to visit Martins ex-wife Cindy to bring her back to him. Cindy Sharp lives with her kids in Torley Heath and has a new partner Paul, who is blind. Cindy explains to them that Martin made many mistakes and that he didn't take care of his children.
After that, Jess organizes a meeting in the basement of Starbucks. She invites all relatives of the four. All in all seventeen people appear, but the meeting is a disaster. Jess and her parents are screaming at each other because her mother claims her that she had stolen a pair of earrings of Jen out of Jen's untouched room. While they are fighting Jess runs out of the Starbucks. JJ and a former member of his band are leaving the basement to have a fight and Martin has an argument with one of Maureen's nurses because he claims him to flirt with Penny. Maureen is the only one of the four who is still present. She talks to Jess' parents and utters the speculation that Jen maybe had come back and took the earrings. The nurses Sean and Stephen help Maureen to bring Matty home and on the way Sean asks her if she is interested to join his quiz-team. At the quiz, and old man from the team offers Maureen a job in a newspaper-store.
When Jess comes back from her trip to London bridge her mother apologizes for her behavior. Jess accepts the apology.
Maureen, JJ and Martin have new jobs now. Martin teaches pupils and wants to start a new life, JJ is a busker and is happy to make music again and Maureen works in a newspaper-store.
The ninety days have passed and they meet in front of the Topper's House again. They decide to go on the roof again. On top, while watching the London Eye
London Eye
The London Eye is a tall giant Ferris wheel situated on the banks of the River Thames, in London, England.It is the tallest Ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom, visited by over 3.5 million people annually...
they realize that their lives are not so bad. They decide to wait with killing themselves for another six months.
Trivia
The Topper's House in the book should be the Archway TowerArchway Tower
The Archway Tower, at 2 Junction Road, Archway, London, is a office building built over Archway tube station and was completed in 1963. Local opinion is divided on the tower, some finding it architecturally unattractive, while others welcome the fact that it brings employment to the area, as well...
above the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
station in north London.
As with several of Hornby's earlier books, it seems likely that A Long Way Down will be adapted for the screen. Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
bought the rights to the book before it was even published and has since hired writer D.V. DeVincentis, who previously wrote the script for the film High Fidelity
High Fidelity (film)
High Fidelity is a 2000 American comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack and the Danish actress Iben Hjejle. The film is based on the 1995 British novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, with the setting moved from London to Chicago and the name of the lead character...
, to write the screenplay. Depp is also quoted on the back of the paperback edition as saying that the book is "Masterful … some of the finest writing, and some of the most outstanding characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading."
Reviews
The book received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reported the book had an average score of 55 out of 100, based on 32 reviews.