Not Hornby’s best, but still a very good read. All the characters are completely different, yet find a common bond of sorts…

This isn’t some Kurasawa-style Rashoman “find the truth from all the perspectives,” but a narrative where each of the four major characters handles a bit of the narrative in turn. Nick Hornby’s writing abilities really show themselves off in this book, because each voice is really distinct and consistent.

The story itself is great. It’s both a big and a small story. Small because it is very narrowly focussed on our heroes – not wandering off to find out what minor character “x” is doing or why minor character “y” said what they did. It’s very close and personal, to the point where you feel like you are reading a shared diary.

It’s also a big story, because it is examining why people want to die, why they want to live, and what they do when they don’t know either one. My version sounds a little cheesy, but you really should give it a try.

Nick seems to hate his characters, and it’s making this one almost unreadable… maybe it’s a subtle ploy: a novel about suicide drives readers to leap off the nearest building…

I liked Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, About a Boy… but Nick’s got to go explore some new ground… or maybe he shouldn’t. His sharpest writing, when he seems interested in the book he’s writing, is when he falls back on his old favourites: music and lists. Personally, after High Fidelity and his “33 songs to listen to” or whatever that one was titled, I’m a bit sick of Hornby’s high opinion of his eclectic and… I don’t know what he thinks it is… the word ‘boss’ keeps leaping to mind. Anyway. Not enjoying it much, about halfway through, and my wife says it doesn’t get any better at the end (usually the one bit that lets him down, anyway).
UPDATE: She was right. I recommend sticking to Nick’s earlier stuff. This one has a great idea for the story, it’s a shame he hates every single character in the book, which, I suppose, could be a challenge to exceptionally compassionate people who want to try and like everyone… good luck with that, anyway. Nick, stick to 30-something English males for your characters… you’ve got those down. You just couldn’t pull off an older English breakfast show presenter, an older Irish woman caring for her vegetable son, a rowdy young minister’s daughter, and an American in London.

Fantastic read. Though try explaining the book to anyone… the looks I got trying to explain the plot of the book were an added sense of amusement to an already funny book.

not bad at all.

Abso-fucking-lutely brilliant. Laugh out loud funny, even. No wonder Nick Hornby’s books usually get made into movies; they’re realistic enough for people to actually relate to them, while still being entertaining.

I absolutely loved this book!

I generally like Nick Hornby’s non-fiction better than his fiction, but the story sounds interesting.