A Long Way Down discussion

I adore Hornby's writing style, however, this book was painful to finish. It started off great, and he is one of the few I can actually laugh out loud to while reading. It became boring and some bits were so ridiculous that I felt foolish for reading it!

I liked the idea for the plot, but I agree it was sort of a slow and painful book to read. It had nice quotes, though.

I read this book awhile ago, and while I love Hornby, I think this and How to Be Good are certainly not his best work. Anything column-like, on the other hand, is fabulous. I especially recommend Songbook and The Polysyllabic Spree. They are great.

I love this book...the story is great but I do agree the ending was a bit of pink bow to wrap things up too nicely. Juliet, naked was great too.

I didn't think it was so bad, though not his best either. For me High Fidelity ranks top, and Juliet Naked is a close second.

Does anyone know if this was made into a movie or are there plans to? With a good screenplay this would be interesting.

I absolutely loved this book! It totally got me hooked on everything Hornby has written and made me a big fan!

It's easy to appreciate that if you're looking for Hornby's usual, then you're not going to love this book. It's only to be expected that with the topic of the book, it's going to be a bit more sombre than his more comedic books. But that being said, this to me was Hornby going above and beyond his usual, and it was a really powerful read that I very much enjoyed.