Using Hornby to help us read Hagar

Long Way Down is a new film adaptation of Nick Hornby's book about a group of people who meet at the top of a notorious suicide spot, ready to throw themselves off, but due to the presence of each other don't jump that night. It is a bigger budget film than Fever Pitch, his first film to be adapted to the big screen, and that is clear in some ways. However, it retains a special charm which is unique to his work, I think, and which Fever Pitch best exemplifies. This charm comes from the way in which Hornby details the complexity of humanity in a way which combines humour with a rare observational skill. Within this he captures something which can be found across cultures but is particularly British.

As I say being suicidal is a central theme to the film but so too is overcoming those feelings. There is also talk of an angel which comes into the film, although this is an invention to make their story more fun as they engage with the media.

I want to go back to Hagar's story which can be found in the bible in Genesis  21 verses 8 -21 and look at how we can be helped to better understand it and how to help communicate it to a contemporary generation if we view it through a similar lens to Long Way Down and through the writing of Nick Hornby.

The first thing about Long Way Down is the characters involved present us with a picture of humanity which isn't always pretty and contains information which may revolt us on one level. Martin is a character whose media career is in tatters after he has been to prison after sleeping with an underage girl for example. Yet, we are taken on a journey which enables us to move on from that to look at the bigger picture, whilst never being asked to excuse an act which we may find abhorrent.

This approach of looking at the story without making moral judgements about the characters is useful to help us engage with Abraham and Sarah as key figures but people whose mistakes are at the root of Hagar's pain. Using this technique we can explore what it might have meant to Abraham to be a Ishmael's father and yet have to send him and Hagar away.

Secondly, Hornby uses within the film is to look at difficult topics as part of life without getting hysterical about them. It is a fact that many people have suicidal feelings at different points in their life and will sometimes act upon them. Hagar was suffering from depression as a result of her experiences and for her laying down her son to die when their food and drink had run out and then preparing to die herself was the logical consequence of what she had to face. The suicidal feelings or feelings of despair are not put forward as anything other than what they are, logical responses to difficult situations in which people find themselves or ways to deal with not being able to cope with facing oneself.

Yet, within the film there is a clear message that whilst suicide and giving up on life may be logical responses they are not the answer there is something more to life and life can change. This is the case for Hagar too. She does have an encounter with an angel and it does change her life by pointing her to resources which can help her - in this case a well. We don't know fully what happens to Hagar and her son Ishmael, just as we don't know fully what happens in the lives of each character in Hornby's film. However, we do know that Ishmael grew up learning successful hunting skills and that Hagar was able to provide the dowry to be able to find him a wife from her own people in Egypt. It doesn't matter that we don't know the detail in either the film or the bible story. What does matter is that we know that after an initial experience these people were able to change their lives around in a way which may not have been easy for them but which was positive.

One of the characters in Long Way Down is a single parent of a severely disabled son. And whilst the single parent aspect is not really explored in this film it is something Hornby has come up in other of Hornby's books adapted for film. About a Boy, takes up this theme and shows the despair which can come from single parenthood too. The early part of Fever Pitch also has single parenthood as a sub-plot theme. They are always portrayed as normal people who happen to be single parents either with or without the care of their children. Whilst the impact of that might be depression or difficulty it is not the sum total of who they are. Through their interactions with others their lives are changed in positive ways.

So I challenge you to re-read the story of Hagar and Ishmael as if it were a Hornby novel or the script of one of his films and see it appears to you then. It may help you to see what this story of an ancient single mother has to say to a contemporary audience.