plot and characters of Hornby´s novel "A long way down"

1. A Long Way Down
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A Long Way Down is a novel written by British author Nick Hornby, published in 2005.
It is a dark comedy, playing off the themes of suicide, angst, depression and
promiscuity.
Language.English, Publisher.Penguin Group, Publication date.7 June 2005
Pages.352 pp, ISBN.1-57322-302-6
The story is written in the first-person narrative from the points of view of the four
main characters, Martin, Maureen, Jess and JJ. These four strangers happen to meet
on the roof of a high building called Toppers' House in London on New Year's Eve,
each with the intent of committing suicide. Their plans for death in solitude are ruined
when they meet. The novel recounts their misadventures as they decide to come down
from the roof alive – however temporarily that may be.
Plot
Part One
Disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp, the lonely housewife Maureen (51 years old), the
unsuccessful musician JJ and the rude teenager Jess (18 years old) meet at Toppers'
House in London on New Year's Eve. They all want to commit suicide by jumping from
the roof. Their plans for death in solitude, however, are ruined when they meet. After
telling their individual stories to the others, they decide to hold off on jumping and to
protect themselves.
Thus a group of four unfortunate and very individual people forms. Jess's condition not
to jump is that they help her to find her ex-boyfriend Chas. So they take a taxi and
drive to the party they suppose Chas to be at. After finding and talking to Chas they
decide to go to Martin's place where they find Penny, who has obviously been crying.
She accuses Martin of cheating on her because he had left the party they'd both
attended that evening without any explanation.
Part Two
The next morning Jess's dad learns that the newspapers are publishing a story about
Jess and Martin. Jess tells him that she slept with Martin, to avoid him finding out the
truth of her attempted suicide. He takes her to task because the whole thing is very
awkward for him. He is the Junior Secretary of Education and has a reputation to lose.
He goes out to get an early edition of the paper and sees the story about her 'suicide
pact' with Martin, so Jess's "whole sex confession bit had been a complete and utter
fucking waste of time."
Jess's father asks Martin to clear up the accusations and Martin denies that he slept
with Jess. After the conversation, her father asks Martin to protect Jess and gives him
money. Afterwards, a reporter calls JJ wanting to know why they decided not to jump,
but JJ refuses to discuss it.
Later Jess calls Maureen, and they decide to organise a meeting at Maureen's place. At
the meeting, Jess suggests that they try to profit from the suicidal-report in the
newspaper. Her idea is to confess to the press that they saw an angel who saved them
from jumping. Martin, Maureen and JJ don't like the idea and they try to convince Jess
out of talking to the press. The next morning they find out that Jess told a reporter,
Linda, that they saw an angel that looked like Matt Damon. Jess also promised Linda
an interview with Martin, Maureen and JJ. Although they are upset with Jess's

2. behaviour, they decide to do the interview. Linda uses the interview to attack Martin in
the press. Thus Martin is fired from his cable TV “FeetUpTV!” but he receives a second
chance by promising to his boss that the other three will be guests in his show. The
show is a disaster and Martin loses his job. At another TV show Jess admits that the
angel story was not true.
Later, JJ decides that the four of them have to go on holiday for Maureen's benefit.
Martin, Jess and JJ help Maureen to find a place for Matty, her son. One week later
they're on a plane to Tenerife. On the second day, Jess sees a girl who looks very
similar to her lost sister Jen. Jess bothers the girl and they have a fight. Out of
frustration Jess gets drunk and the police have to take her back to the hotel. JJ meets
a girl that saw his old band and they spend the night together. Martin decides to leave
the hotel after a fight with Jess. During his absence from the others he thinks about
his life and decides that he has made no mistakes. He blames other people for how his
life has turned out. In the taxi to the airport they talk about their holiday and plan
another meeting for Valentine's Day.
They meet at 8 o'clock on the roof of Toppers' House on Valentine's Day. While they
have a conversation, they see a young man who is planning to jump from the roof.
They try to stop him from committing suicide but he jumps. They decide to go home
and to meet the following afternoon at Starbucks.
Part Three
Martin tells them about a newspaper article he read according to which people who
want to commit suicide need 90 days to overcome their predicament. So they decide
to hold their decision until 31 March.
Maureen and Jess decide to visit Martin's ex-wife Cindy to bring her back to him. Cindy
Sharp lives with her kids in Torley Heath and has a new partner Paul, whom Maureen
and Jess later find out is blind. Cindy explains to them that Martin made many
mistakes and that he didn't take care of the children.
After that, Jess organises a meeting in the basement of Starbucks. She invites relatives
of the four. All in all, seventeen people appear, but the meeting is a disaster. Jess and
her parents are screaming at each other because her mother claims that she had
stolen a pair of earrings from Jen's untouched room. While they are fighting Jess runs
out of the Starbucks. JJ and a former member of his band are leaving the basement to
have a fight and Martin has an argument with one of Maureen's nurses because he
claims that he's flirting with Penny.
Maureen is the only one of the four who is still present. She talks to Jess's parents and
speculates that Jen may have come back to take the earrings. The nurses Sean and
Stephen help Maureen to bring Matty home and on the way Sean asks her if she is
interested in joining their quiz team. At the quiz, an old man from the team offers
Maureen a job in a newsagent's. When Jess comes back from her trip to London Bridge
her mother apologizes for accusing her. Jess accepts the apology, seeing the hope
Maureen's suggestion has given her mother.
Maureen, JJ and Martin have new jobs now. Martin is a teacher, and wants to start a
new life; JJ is a busker and is happy to make music again; and Maureen has started
work at the newsagent's.

3. The ninety days have passed and they meet in a pub near Toppers' House. They
decide to go on the roof again. While watching the London Eye from the roof, they
realise that their lives aren't that bad. They decide to delay their final decision on
killing themselves for another six months.
Characters
Martin Sharp – Martin Sharp is a celebrity whose age isn't revealed, but he is
described as a middle-aged man. Martin's life was perfect: he had a wife and two little
daughters, a well-paid job and was successful. He was host of a famous show called
“Rise and Shine with Penny and Martin” but Martin made the mistake of sleeping with
a girl aged 15 years and 250 days old (a 115-day gap to legality), for which he spent
three months in prison. The scandal only increases his fame, as his case was stripped
in the yellow press. When he is released from prison, he discovers that his marriage is
ruined. From that point he works for a cable TV channel with low popularity
(FeetUpTV!) and has an affair with Penny, his former colleague. He does not make an
effort to see his daughters or to clarify the tense situation with his wife. He's very
unhappy about his situation and feels that he has "pissed his life away" and that's why
he wants to end his life.
Maureen – Maureen is a 51-year-old single mother of a disabled son named Matty.
Her whole life revolves around Matty, to whom she is a very sacrificial mother, having
had to leave her job to care for him. She has no freedom and free time except the
services at church she attends every Sunday. Maureen and Matty live in a small flat,
who has his own room which she decorates for him even though she can't be sure that
he realises it. Maureen dreams of going on a holiday, but she is isolating herself more
and more from her surrounding. She is trapped in this difficult situation. She wants to
commit suicide to get rid of her problems, which seems impossible to her.
Jess Crichton – Jess is an eighteen-year-old girl with family problems. She does not
have any real friends. Jess tends to easily irritate others as she tends to say everything
that comes to her mind, without considering the feelings of others. Jess' father, Chris
Chrichton, is a local politician and the family is completed by her mother. Her sister
Jen, who is very important to her, left the family a few years ago and is thought to
have committed suicide. The whole family, especially the mother and Jess, are still
very upset about it. Jess uses a lot of slang terms, and says the word "fuck" often. She
doesn't respect the feelings of the other characters, and as such is not close with any
of them. She often argues with Martin because it bothers her that he is everything she
dislikes: educated and rather arrogant, features that fit to her father, too. Her
relationship with her parents is tense because her mother accuses her of having stolen
a pair of earrings from her sister Jen which the mother had left in Jen's untouched
room. She is the one who convinces the group not to jump immediately but, instead,
to find her ex-boyfriend. She wants to commit suicide by jumping from the tower block
because of her family problems and losing her ex-boyfriend though it's also slightly
impulsive, brought on by attending a party downstairs in Toppers House.
JJ – JJ is an American who came to London with his girlfriend Lizzie. He played in a
band called “Big Yellow” and toured across the country. For Lizzie he gave up his
dream of becoming a rock star, but the band broke up and Lizzie dumped him. But the
dream of becoming successful still exists in his heart. Much to his disappointment, he
now earns money by delivering pizza. He compares his own ambition for suicide with
the ambitions of well-known musicians and also compares the four people on the roof
with a band he calls “Toppers' House Four”.