A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby.

      A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Book/Film Review.

"These weren't my people. They were just people who would talk to me because I was in their boat, but it was a bad boat to be in-an unseaworthy, shabby little boat, and I could suddenly see that it was going to break up and sink."

Nick Hornby is rated as one of our most gifted comic writers so the obvious question to ask is what is remarkably amusing or alluring, reading about four people wanting to kill themselves? Group suicide is it fashionable? Is there an attraction? If so, what is it? Very dark humour emerges from the miserable lives of four very different people who have had to deal with excessive personal suffering and shame. Some of it is self-inflicted though. Take Martin Sharp for example.

Hornby moralises allowing the characters to reflect on their misery, giving themselves time to reassess the value or worthlessness of their lives. But don't expect any glorious moments of redemption or melodrama. Having an epiphany would be unrealistic and instant happiness is unattainable. People are too complex emotionally and guilt can destroy.

The message coming across from the younger generation is worrying-suicide is cool, doing it is fun. This makes me cringe in fear. Is leaping into the void easier than facing what you've done? Martin, inanely refers to wanting his brain to spill out on the concrete below when he throws himself off Toppers' House "like a McDonald's milk shake." Shocking.

The characters are feisty representatives of humanity, utterly convincing but perhaps not the most likeable of people who become a self-help friendship group. Friends for ever but what an odd motley of a friendship group-suicidal misfits. The Topper's House Four bent on self-destruction.

Martin had the most to lose. He had been a tv celebrity, married with two children but his life had spiralled out of control with nightclubs and teenage girls. He had made catastrophically bad decisions which had ruined him. Out of the four he probably had the most opportunities of success and happiness but he had thrown away every opportunity as if he had a death wish, a need to fail big-time. Cindy his ex-wife calls him unbalanced and poisonous and he admits to this. He was.

He served a 3 month prison sentence for under-age sex with a girl who lied about her age and naturally, lost everything. The tabloids hounded him with every opportunity, relishing in humiliating him so that Martin has to confront his fall from grace on a daily basis. The media portray him as a drunken baboon, a has-been even an exhibit in a freak show.

He is the first to reach the top of Topper's House one New Year's Eve and dangle his feet over the ledge, drunk out of his mind contemplating throwing himself over the top. He didn't feel sad, just stupid and very angry with himself. As a contrast, Maureen, a middle-aged lady who looked like someone's cleaning lady was a tragic case. She had been denied any decent opportunity of happiness being saddled with a severely handicapped boy as an unmarried woman and a Catholic. She had struggled for 19 years merely existing. She believed she was in a  limbo, the state between living and dying. Everything stopped for Maureen the day she had Matty and nothing ever moved on from there.

"It's the one single thing that makes you die inside and, eventually wants to make you die on the outside too."

She had left her son in respite and here on the roof, Maureen was waiting her turn once Martin had made up his mind what he was going to do. He gives her 20 minutes to make up her mind and they change places. How bizarre! Before anything happens a crazy, drugged nutter roared at them and charged like a Red Indian making a war-whopping sound about to throw herself over the ledge. She was the most likely one to do it on a whim to see what it felt like! Very unpredictable. How crazy is that? For Martin, this solemn and private moment had soon turned into a farce with a cast of thousands he exaggerates. But we understand what he means.

Sobering up a little, Martin rugby tackles her, kneeling on her and getting Maureen to sit on her, grinding her face into the tarmac and her nose into the dirt. The black humour soon emerges when Martin explains that Jess can't kill herself because she is too young. 18 to be precise. How old do you have to be to do it? Not why are you doing it?

No sooner had they disarmed Jess then the Topper's 4 group became complete with the arrival of a pizza man called JJ who had intended on delivering the pizzas downstairs before throwing himself over. He was just checking the place out. Absurd. All four wanted to take the Vincent Van Gogh route out of this world. They do at least communicate and decide to go down to the real world for a while. They keep in touch, reassess their unhappy lives and meet up periodically giving each other well-needed time to sort out their lives or end them.

I liked it but readers have responded very differently, many finding it preposterous. The film has just been released in the UK and the reviews have been critical. "Fantastically unconvincing." Pierce Brosnan plays Martin and Toni Collette plays Maureen. I look forwarding to watching the film soon then I can criticise it if I want to can't I?

Publisher: Penguin.  ISBN: 0-140-28702-7 and 978-0140-287028

COPYRIGHT 2014. Permission must be obtained from the author before any of this article review is reproduced.