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[Emaline]

I bought this book awhile back but I haven't had a chance to read it. I'm finishing up The World According To Garp right now, and I have two books I could read after this. One is this Hornby book, and the other is The Face by Koontz. So has anybody read A long Way Down? Is it any good?

[Ladybug]

Yup, I've read it, and I really liked it. Then again, I've liked almost everything I've read by Nick Hornby, so yeah. I suck at explaining why I like things, so I'll just shut up now.

[The extra letter]

I started reading it, liked the first half and kinda sidetracked and never finished it.

[alongwaltz]

Yeah, I enjoyed this, but I've enjoyed all of Hornby's books.

I'd probably put this higher than How To Be Good, but on par with High Fidelity and About A Boy.

[I Am Not Amused]

I've read it and...

Well, I liked it. But I didn't OVERLY like it, if you get my meaning. That is to say, I enjoyed reading it, but didn't think it was amazing.

The story kind of meandered a bit, but did so intentionally. A Long Way Down just seemed so insistent on sticking to 'reality.' It's a very 'real' book, the characters feel like they're real people, they make flawed, realistic decisions, and there are no life-changing moments, like there often aren't in life. This seemed to be as much the book's greatest flaw as it was its greatest strength. The entire book seemed to be an excersize by Hornby to see just how noncommittal a resolution he could get away with. Given, his endings for Fever Pitch, About A Boy, High Fidelity weren't the type of resolutions you typically read, they still had a sense of wrapping up the story to them that I felt, because of its decision to stick to 'reality,' A Long Way Down lacked.