C itibaren Huğlu Belediyesi, 42710 Huğlu Belediyesi/Beyşehir/Konya, Turecko
Once again, one of those books that has a catchy hook or an intriguing plot, but falls short in its execution. Maybe 2 1/2 stars. Maybe... Four people in London who have absolutely nothing in common, all find themselves on the roof of a building famous for suicides. Each of them has given up on their life and has their own reasons for jumping. However, after being confounded by the presence of the others, they form an informal support group for each other. The rest of the book is a kind of potpourri of revisiting histories, cursing the past, present, and future, creating new friendships, and oddly finding yourself at a loosely tied together ending. Occasionally, Hornby throws in some interesting thoughts (as expressed through the four characters) about why people become suicidal, and possible solutions for reconciling oneself with a shattered life. Coincidentally, I picked up Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning while I was in the middle of this book, and I found that book to express the psychology of suicide and its prevention a thousand times better and in more depth. It didn't help that Hornby's book is extremely loose with cursing, to the point of distraction from the content of the novel and to annoyance. Though I haven't read any of his others, this book made me think that Hornby is one of those authors who feels like he has to lace his books with curse words in order to make it "more real" to the reader or to show us that he's cool. To any author who may be reading this--IT'S NOT. EXCESSIVE SWEARING ONLY DETRACTS FROM THE QUALITY OF YOUR BOOK AND IT IS POINTLESS. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE AN AUTHOR, ONE SKILLED WITH WORDS--ACT LIKE IT. Overall, I picked it up hoping for a look into suicide and human nature, and all I got was a lousy t-shirt that says &%$#*@$.
Ha! Funny. Should have been longer. It took me about 30 minutes to get through.
I enjoyed the complexity of the relationship between the brothers.