5 Reasons Why Martin Doesn’t Deserve A Second Chance (Book 3)

A Long Way Down is a great read that will have readers praying all turns out okay. Martin Sharp, one of four main characters, is one that isn’t given as much love from a reader as the others. He’s screwed up his life and while the others deserve another chance, he doesn’t. Here are 5 reasons why.

1. He’s self-centered

Like a five-year old child all Martin thinks about is himself. The reader feels sympathy for Martin’s ex-wife and children who he cheated on with a 15 year old girl. However, Martin is upset that Cindy never lets him see the girls, hates that Penny actually loves him enough to be in a relationship with him and whines about having new companions that annoy him. Many of us given these blessing would take them and run but Martin still stays in what he wants and what he lost, only thinking of himself.

2. He has no self-respect.

Now the reader realizes a character that was about to commit suicide shouldn’t be too high on self-confidence but the rest of the characters always had something that they valued. But Martin screwed up his life and hated himself, even though he was self-centered he recognized that he wasn’t all that great. He describes how he doesn’t think he deserves Penny by stating, “I couldn’t believe that she wanted to be with me for any other reason than nostalgia and pity,” (93). Martin didn’t value himself and if he was given a second chance he would just throw it away in order to wallow in self-pity.

3. He doesn’t want to change anything.

After meeting JJ, Maureen and Jesse Martin is basically given a second chance. The reader watches him as he thinks about what he would do differently. Martin realizes that he wouldn’t do anything differently because he’s sorry that he got caught but not all that sorry for what he did. Martin is a static character, from start to end he doesn't change.

4. He’s antisocial.

During the book the group decides to treat Maureen to a vacation because it's all that she wishes for. While on the island, Martin splits off from the group, run away from Jess and doesn't socialize, instead staying in his own world. He is so determined not to spend his vacation with the group that he hides in a pub bathroom for a couple hours just to avoid conversing with Jess. Not only is this unbelievably rude, isn't the majority of life spent in other's company? He's just begging to not be given another chance.

5. He's ungrateful.

Towards the end of the book he gets the opportunity to tutor an 8 year old kid name Pacino. But he doesn't take it in with all the gratefulness you would expect from a man who is able to prove himself moral again. He relates the process to a plane flight saying, "I was realistic enough to see that he wasn't going to get me all the way there, but volunteering to sit down with a stupid and unattractive child for an hour represented several thousand air miles, surely?" (320). He just can't take what he's given and deal with it, he's got to complain the whole time he's making lemonade out of his lemons.

Nick Hornby’s A Long Way Down is interesting, funny and thought –provoking. Most of his characters the reader will root for but they will have to keep in mind that Martin Sharp is not one of them. If one thing is for sure, he doesn’t deserve another chance. 

Post #5

     In my mind in order for a book to be non-fiction it has to be 95% true. Writing a memoir I don't expect authors to remember every aspect of their life. I don't expect the dialogue to be exact quotes or for them to remember exactly what day it was. But I do expect them to be as truthful as possible, I don't' want them adding in a family member into a conversation just for emphasis. I don't' want them to fabricate back stories, add in characters, or change where they were in their lives. Creative license is allowed in memoirs but not to the point where the majority of the story and impact of it is affected by the lies in the book.  Half-truths don't cut it in my book because the give an author a way out. A way out of being personal of giving up what truly happened, instead hiding under embellishments that make them seem more interesting. It matters for the truth not to be bent because its a slippery slop, if we accept small details to be changed authors will argue that anything they changed is small in the big picture of the novel. David Shields is wrong about erasing the boundary between fiction and non-fiction. Without a distinction written becomes chaos there will be no fact, no fiction, nothing can be trusted. As Seth Greenland pointed out , "our culture's inability to agree on the solidity of fact to be a sign of the apocalypse." Without the distinction there will be no records, nothing that can mark a document as full fact and without the facts there will be no law. Because every law there is can be disproved by the fact that anything a person writes could be true, and could let the person free of charges and implications of breaking that law.  There has to be a line between the genres or there will be no way to tell what or who to believe.