A Long Way Down
Nick Hornby
Started July 8, 2007
Finished July 11, 2007
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. Sometimes I think I may have outgrown Nick Hornby and similar writers, but no, I think there's still something to this that speaks to me. Really, the more I think about this novel, the more I conclude that while it seems like a rather quick, pretty surface-y read, many of the issues addressed had a way of sticking to me... almost like I got tricked into considering new ideas. Which I have to say, I don't mind. I also quite enjoy Hornby's evident love of books which is sprinkled throughout. Especially the observation that it's considered weird to read a book with other people around, but no one gives it a second thought when someone is playing video games in a crowded room. (Haha... except for me.)
WARNING: SPOILERS (not that there's many plot points to spoil...)
Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, I actually found Maureen the most interesting character. One thing that she says really hit me as spot on... the need to not fill all 60 minutes an hour every hour with the same thing. I know that I am sometimes guilty of that, and it does nothing for my mental health. Maureen also has the shittiest situation in my opinion... while Matty, her completely nonfunctional son, doesn't have a voice at all in the novel, his presence is definitely felt. I don't know what I'd do in her situation. What she says about having kids struck me as being pretty right too... that a lot of people have kids to feel a sense of forward motion in their lives, and one of the saddest things about her life is that nothing ever changes because Matty never really grows up. Interestingly, though, she seems to me the happiest of the 4 main characters by the end of the novel, and it has a lot more to do with her outlook than with external events. Really, some of the other characters actually struck me as kind of whiny and less sympathetic.
I liked that nothing really changes by the end of the novel, but the characters somehow seem like they will be okay in the end. Not great, but okay. The plot meanders along, with lots of fairly random things happening and no real end destination in sight, but the destination isn't the point of this novel. It's figuring out how to get there that's the interesting (and difficult) part.
WARNING: SPOILERS (not that there's many plot points to spoil...)
Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, I actually found Maureen the most interesting character. One thing that she says really hit me as spot on... the need to not fill all 60 minutes an hour every hour with the same thing. I know that I am sometimes guilty of that, and it does nothing for my mental health. Maureen also has the shittiest situation in my opinion... while Matty, her completely nonfunctional son, doesn't have a voice at all in the novel, his presence is definitely felt. I don't know what I'd do in her situation. What she says about having kids struck me as being pretty right too... that a lot of people have kids to feel a sense of forward motion in their lives, and one of the saddest things about her life is that nothing ever changes because Matty never really grows up. Interestingly, though, she seems to me the happiest of the 4 main characters by the end of the novel, and it has a lot more to do with her outlook than with external events. Really, some of the other characters actually struck me as kind of whiny and less sympathetic.
I liked that nothing really changes by the end of the novel, but the characters somehow seem like they will be okay in the end. Not great, but okay. The plot meanders along, with lots of fairly random things happening and no real end destination in sight, but the destination isn't the point of this novel. It's figuring out how to get there that's the interesting (and difficult) part.
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