A Long Way Down Riverhead Books
by Nick Hornby
Reviewed by Adam D. Miller
Nick Hornby is one of Britain’s best novelists, and his work manages to be very accessible and heartfelt without alienating an intelligent and thicker-skinned audience who doesn’t put up with sappiness. Many of his novels, such as High Fidelity, About A Boy, and Fever Pitch have been made into successful Hollywood movies (for better of worse!), but the source material has always been the place to go.
After a spell of non-fiction that included the fantastic Songbook (also known as 31 Songs), which found Hornby writing about some of his favorite songs, and The Polysyllabic Spree, which collected essays, interviews, and other pieces Hornby had written for various publications, A Long Way Down marks Hornby’s return to fiction.
There are certain things about Hornby that we have come to expect in his fiction and non-fiction. He has a gift for characterization, a brain for witty dialogue, and is good at telling a story that is both down-to-earth and off-the-wall.
However, he has also been accused of obsessing over a given topic to the point of alienating an audience who has no idea what he’s talking about. When I told a co-worker of mine that I was reading the latest Nick Hornby novel, she turned to ask me, “What sport is this one about?” But while Fever Pitch turned off those of us who know nothing of sports and High Fidelity those of us who know nothing of music snobbery, A Long Way Down includes a diverse assortment of characters and a universal subject matter: suicide.
A Long Way Down is about suicide, but before you jump down to the next review in search of something a little more lighthearted, let me just say the novel rarely verges into depressing territory. We are introduced to four characters who find themselves on a London rooftop on New Years Eve, ready to take the plunge. Jess is the depressive daughter of a British politician; Martin, a down-and-out TV host wrapped up in scandal; Maureen, the mother of a dependent teenage son in a vegetated state; and J.J., an American rock star wannabe who followed his girlfriend to England only to be dumped. All four characters have a turn in narrating the novel, as they bond and deal with life’s struggles together, coming to terms with their provocations.
There are few novelists who can make suicide funny, and Hornby is one of them. But it is not all humor. In one of the novel’s more tender moments, J.J. introduces Martin, Maureen, and Jess to the music of Nick Drake. (Although his novel isn’t about music, Hornby isn’t afraid to sneak in references to a score of musical artists, including The White Stripes, The Replacements, and, in many cases, The Beatles).
But when it is not heartfelt and touching, A Long Way Down is fucking hilarious. Sorry, Maureen. In one of the novel’s funniest moments, J.J. is trying to come up with an excuse for wanting to kill himself when the characters agree to share their reasons. Impressed by everyone else’s reason and embarrassed by his own (his band’s breakup and his girlfriend’s leaving him), J.J. lies and tells the others that he is dying. Jess, the cynic of the bunch, asks if he has AIDS. J.J., who feels uncomfortable lying about having something as awful as AIDS, tells the bunch he has CCR. “Which, of course, is Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of my all-time favorite bands, and a big inspiration to me. I didn’t think any of them looked like big Creedence fans. Jess was too young, I really didn’t need to worry about Maureen, and Martin was the kind of guy who’d only have smelled a rat if I’d told him I was dying of incurable ABBA.”
An enjoyable read from start-to-finish, A Long Way Down stands up with the best of Hornby’s work and is recommended for fans of the quirky and the chocked-full-of-cultural-references. Let’s just hope they don’t screw up the movie.
Comments? Click here to let us know what you think.
Jump Back To Top
No Country For Old Men Knopf
by Cormac McCarthy
Reviewed by Brighid Mooney
Cormac McCarthy's ninth novel, No Country For Old Men, delivers everything that we have come to expect from the author's award-winning work; Magnificent, poetic descriptions of the American Southwest and the raw, rugged borderland between the United States and Mexico; A world full of unspeakable violence, desperation, struggle and chilling disregard for human life; And a cast of characters on the run from the law, from society and from each other, who are thrown into one another's lives by situations derived from both choice and chance. McCarthy writes epic fiction with the stoic and somber realism of literary masters like Melville and Faulkner and the flowing, lyrical prose that places the reader firmly into his character's frequently terrifying existence. His novels are set in frightening, nightmarish worlds where we often don't even realize that we are already living. This is especially true of his latest, which takes place a mere quarter century ago, when the never-ending wars that society is still waging upon itself were just beginning.
No Country For Old Men follows Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss in his evasive travels along the Texas/Mexico border as he is relentlessly pursued by three separate parties. Hunting antelope along the Rio Grande, Moss has stumbled upon the remnants of a drug deal gone horribly wrong. Among the smattering of dead and decomposing bodies and the carload of heroin, he finds $2.4 million in used bills and the discovery sets off the chain of events that he knows will end his life. Unwilling to relinquish the money, even to save his own wife, he finds himself being hunted by the formidable representatives of both sides, including an ex-special forces agent and a mesmerizing and merciless freelance murderer who appears like a ghost, inexorable and unkillable. Struggling to find and save Moss and his young wife before his pursuers can get to him is Sheriff Bell, an aging lawman fighting his own personal battles against lingering feelings of duty and guilt. It is his sensitive and poignant narration that gives the novel its heart as it sets up yet another battle in the continual war between good and evil that directs men’s lives and leaves us battered and broken.
The novel moves along at a swift pace before reaching its heartbreaking conclusion. Filled with spectacular violence and gruesome brutality, No Country For Old Men is at once the simple story of a harrowing manhunt and a thoughtful and profound meditation on life and death and the ruthless and absurd nature of our world. It is McCarthy at his best, a powerful storyteller weaving gripping tales of the frontiers, not just of America, but of humanity itself.
Comments? Click here to let us know what you think.
Jump Back To Top
Sinatra: The Life Knopf
by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swann
Reviewed by Brighid Mooney
Seven years after his death, there is finally a fully documented biography on the life of Frank Sinatra, starting from his humble yet driven beginnings in Hoboken, New Jersey and tracing his life and career all the way until his lonely twilight years and death in 1998. Painstakingly researched, Sinatra: the Life sheds light on every part of Sinatra's existence, including new facts about things that the singer had managed to more or less conceal from the public eye until now. Following a life and career that span more than eighty years, the book explores Sinatra's professional life, his rise to the top as an early teenage idol and his first professional decline, his second wind in the 1950s, when he became a bigger star than the first time around, appearances in numerous films roles and how the legend of The Voice came to be.
Frank Sinatra, in addition to being a one-time teen idol who eventually ascended to pop royalty, also lived a complicated and turbulent personal life. Close friends of the star knew him for his alternately extravagant generosity and his vindictive brutality. Sinatra also details the singer's tumultuous love life, his constant and successive womanizing and his lifelong love and obsession for his one-time wife, Ava Gardner. The formation of the infamous Rat Pack is also chronicled in this voluminous biography, full of details about the group who first defined the word "cool."
In addition to his professional and romantic life, Sinatra also gives unprecedented details about the singer's involvement in politics and his role in the election of President John F. Kennedy, as well as carefully documenting his lifelong association with well-known mafia figures, starting in his childhood in New Jersey and continuing through every leg of his career. His role in connecting the Kennedys to the mob is also given thorough coverage for the first time.
At the end of this detailed tome, one comes away knowing Frank Sinatra not just as a legendary pop singer who revolutionized the world of crooners and torch songs, but also as a real human being, capable of great things both personally and professionally, but also of great brutality and personal despair. His final years, while his health declined in the wake of alcoholism and a continuing depression, are marked by a deep sadness and incorrigible loneliness, despite his longstanding marriage to his last wife, Barbara. Sinatra: the Life is the story of a man of extraordinary talents and drive who rose from the poor neighborhoods of Hoboken to become one of America's greatest singers of all time. It is a book whose elaborate detail and fair-minded portrayal show us the complexities of the man himself and manages to do justice to the monumental legacy of Frank Sinatra.
Comments? Click here to let us know what you think.
Jump Back To Top
Be There Now...
Album Reviews
Film Reviews
DVD Reviews
Concert Reviews
Book Reviews
The little flags you see on our site are links to Amazon. We hope you will consider purchasing items through these links, as they help with the maintenance of the site.
Or, click below:
Visitors from the US:
Visitors from Canada:
