A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby

I think the problem here is the schematic opening. Four disparate characters decide to kill themselves by jumping from a tower block on New Year's Eve but all end up there at the same time and no-one ends up jumping, instead forming a kind of mutual support group. Twin this opening with the requirements of a reader-satisfying story and the whole thing is bound to end up a bit forced, with heavy use of fudged motivations and unlikely plot turns.

Hornby is a talented writer, so its always readable. The narration is spread between the 4 central figures who are well delineated, but only the single mother of a severely disabled boy elicits any real sympathy. There are some good jokes, too.

The Plot Against America - Philip Roth

There are two interesting ideas that intersect in this novel. The first is the counterfactual conceit that an antisemitic Charles Lindbergh won the 1940 US election on an anti-war, isolationist ticket and proceeded to institute Nazi-lite policies. The second is the use of Roth and his family as "real" victims of the regime.

It's intriguing stuff, written as brilliantly as one would expect. The acceptance of a fascist government across parts of America rings unpleasantly true, and one could certainly interpret this as an anti-Bush novel (it was published in 2005). Some clunky and hurried plotting towards the end mars the efeect a little.

Job

Granted this book contains some of the best poetry in the Bible thus far, but its a bit of a drag. The moral debates are lengthy and difficult to follow, and everyone comes across as priggish. True to OT form God is maddeningly capricious and cruel, but his apparently good mate Satan is a laugh.

Bone; treasure hunters - Jeff Smith

The pace picks up markedly for the penultimate instalment of the Bone saga, with the cast reaching the big city and plenty of plot strands beginning to come together. I confess that I'm a little lost plot-wise by now, but I expect that everything will be resolved in the final book with a big punch-up.

The Service of Clouds - Delia Falconer

Remember when Michael Ondaatje was all the rage back in the 1990s? I was a fully paid-up fanboy, still am actually, so this very Ondaatjian novel was a pleasant throwback for me.

The imagery, mainly threaded around the ideas of clouds and photography, is beautifully sustained and creates an ethereal, almost eerie, mood. The odd overwrought moment is forgivable when the style is as rich as this.

I also enjoyed the setting, the Blue Mountains in the first half of the twentieth century.