A Long Way Down (2005) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

• Jess: One of the four protagonists. Daughter of the junior minister of Education, she becomes depressed when her older sister Jen goes missing.
• Martin Sharp: A former TV talk-show host. British.
• Maureen: One of the four main characters. Mother to Matty — severely disabled. British.
• Cindy: Martin's ex-wife.
• JJ: An American musician. Described by Martin as "a tall, good-looking, long-haired man."
• Lizzie: JJ's ex-girlfriend
• Matty: Maureen's severly disabled son.
• Chas: Jess' ex-boyfreind. She stalked him.
• Jen: Jess' sister
• Stephen: One of Matty's nurses
• Well: Add a description of this character.
• Linda
• Kathy: JJ's one-night stand
• Sean: Matty's other nurse
• Theo: Martin's agent
• Pacino: A student Martin tutors
• Eddie: JJ's friend, and band partner
• Mr. Crichton: Jess's father
• Matt Damon: An actor - Jess describes an angel she saw as looking like him.
• Cosmic Tony: Theoretical character dreampt up by JJ--can grant people wishes of sorts, but only if it involves "arranging" things.
• Paul
• Frank: Maureen's one-time fiance and father of her son
• David
• Marty
• John
• Tony Blair: Referred to in conversation
• Penny: Martin's co-host on breakfast television before he went to prison.

Quotes edit see section history

• “The trouble with my generation is that we all think we're fucking geniuses. Making something isn't good enough for us, and neither is selling something, or teaching something, or even just doing something; we have to be something.”

  JJ

• “"And it was kind of appropriate that I was with my ex-lover and my ex-brother at the precise moment I realized, because it was the same kind of thing. I loved them, and would always love them. But there was no place where they could fit anymore, so I had nowhere to put all the things I felt. I didn't know what to do with them, and they didn't know what to do with me, and isn't that just life?"”

• “And I was just about to let Maureen jump in peace when this f**king lunatic came roaring at us.”

  Martin

• “I may not know the weight of those things, but I could feel the weight of that one, so I kept it to myself. You know that things aren't going well for you when you can't even tell people the simplest fact about your life, just because they'll presume you're asking them to feel sorry for you. I suppose it's why you feel so far away from everyone, in the end; anything you can think of to tell them just ends up making them feel terrible.”

  Maureen

• “Asking the head I have now to explain its own thinking is as pointless as dialing your own telephone number on your own telephone: Either way, you get an engaged signal.”

  Martin

• “Hard is trying to rebuild yourself, piece by piece, with no instruction book, and no clue as to where all the important bits are supposed to go.”

  Martin

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “He took his own life after sober and careful contemplation of the fucking shambles it had become.”

  Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers

• The truth was that I didn’t feel like a dying man; I felt like a man who every now and again wanted to die, and there’s a difference. A man who wants to die feels angry and full of life and desperate and bored and exhausted, all at the same time; he wants to fight everyone, and he wants to curl up in a ball and hide in a cupboard somewhere. He wants to say sorry to everyone, and he wants everyone to know just how badly they’ve all let him down.

  Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers

• And there are other ways of dying, without killing yourself. You can let parts of yourself die. Jess’s mother had let her face die, and I watched it come to life again.

  Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers

• “ ‘Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative,’ ”

  Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers

• I had that terrible feeling you get when you realize that you’re stuck with who you are, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

  Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers

• It’s music rage, which is like road rage, only more righteous. When you get road rage, a tiny part of you knows you’re being a jerk, but when you get music rage, you’re carrying out the will of God, and God wants these people dead.

  Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers

• The trouble with my generation is that we all think we’re fucking geniuses. Making something isn’t good enough for us, and neither is selling something, or teaching something, or even just doing something; we have to be something. It’s our inalienable right, as citizens of the twenty-first century.

  Highlighted by 14 Kindle customers

• Maybe life is just too big a gap to be plugged by plaster, so we need anything we can get our hands on—sanders and planers, fifteen-year-olds, whatever—to fill it up.

  Highlighted by 13 Kindle customers

• How do people, like, not curse? How is it possible? There are all these gaps in speech where you just have to put a “fuck.” I’ll tell you who the most admirable people in the world are: newscasters. If that was me, I’d be like, “And the motherfuckers flew the fucking plane right into the Twin Towers.” How could you not, if you’re a human being? Maybe they’re not so admirable. Maybe they’re robot zombies.

  Highlighted by 13 Kindle customers

• Oscar Wilde once said, “One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.”

  Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• London
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Islington
• England

Organizations edit see section history

• Manchester United: Football team.
• London Zoo: A zoo in London
• McDonalds: A fast food restaurant
• New York Times: Organization

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Bong: Filteration device for smoking.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Suicide: This book is about the unlikely friendship of four people who want to commit suicide.
• Humour: Ironically, despite suicide being the main theme in this book, this book is actually quite humorous and uplifting.

Series & Lists edit see section history

List the series to which this book belongs.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Nick Hornby (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Scott Brick (Narrator) - for Penguin USA edition
2. Simon Vance (Narrator) - for Penguin USA edition
3. Kate Reading (Narrator) - for Penguin USA edition
4. Morwenna Banks - for Penguin UK edition
5. Walter Lewis (Narrator) - for Penguin UK edition
6. Neil Pearson (Narrator) - for Penguin UK edition
7. Sophie Thompson (Narrator) - for Penguin UK edition

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Whitbread Book Award (Finalist, 2005: Novel, Shortlist)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR6058.O689 L66
• Dewey: 823.914 22

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Okay for older teens but deals with suicide and loss.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( H ) › Hornby, Nick
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Penguin Books Website

More Books Like This edit see section history