Reminding me of Douglas Coupland’s “All Families are Psychotic” - Nick Hornby’s latest book is surreal and full of coincidences.
The plot of the story wasn’t exactly convincing but the characters were highly believable. Half-way through the story, I started feeling sorry for Maureen (a 51-year-old single mum with a teenage son in a coma) and wanting to punch Jess (a rebellious, foul-mouthed daughter of the Ministor for Education) in the face to shut her up; Martin (a former morning show presenter who went to jail for sleeping with a minor) knew he was a snobbish arsehole but failed to be a better person; the only character I didn’t care about was JJ (an American rock-and-roll ‘musician’ who was dumped by his band and his English girlfriend).
I liked the way it was written through four prespectives. It was like watching Jackie Brown - same scene from different angles.
Although Hornby’s characters kept criticising happy endings, it didn’t stop him from creating another Hollywood-friendly conclusion.
A Long Way Down was written by Nick Hornby.