How to Be Good

Rating:
Summary: A good idea that went off-track
Review: I had read so many average and downright negative reviews of this novel, I started it quite convinced I would hate it and for awhile I was entertained to my surprise. You have to give Hornby some credit, he wrote two quite similar books, High Fidelity and About a Boy, which for all their differences both involved mid-30's male slackers as protagonists who lacked direction, but who were undoubtedly hip. In fact, the latter novel largely involved an attempt by the narrator to befriend an awkward kid and teach him to be in tune with contemporary culture, ie listening to Nirvana instead of Joni Mitchell.

Here, in How to Be Good, Hornby tackles new territory - a contemporary marriage, complete with boredom, adultery and guilt over the effect of the strife on the kids. He also uses a female narrator, Katie Carr, who keeps reminding us throughout the novel that she must be a good person because she is a doctor (even though I know certain categories of folks, including nurses and trial lawyers, who don't necessarily believe doctors walk on water all the time).

As the novel begins, Katie is having an affair, and is bored silly with her marriage to David, the self-proclaimed "Angriest Man in Holloway" who writes a scathing column in a local paper while lackadaisically working on an awful novel. David, on a whim, decides to visit a faith healer for help with his back pain, since none of his wife's traditional remedies has done him any good. He meets the odd DJ Good News, a man with a healing touch and radical ideas about how one should live your life in contemporary society.

Soon, amidst the chaos of a marital split, Good News is moving into David and Katie's house, to the dismay of their son Tom, and begins transforming their family life and ideas about worldly possessions. I thought the novel raises some interesting (and perhaps troubling) questions, such as why should a family have several computers while the local orphanage has none, and why should each family on the block have one or more empty bedrooms when there are so many homeless in London. Throughout it all, the novel explores the capacity for people to stop, re-evaluate their belief systems, and radically change their lives. David gives away toys and computers belonging to his kids, and when he sees a homeless guy on the street after a night out at the theater, gives the guy virtually everything in his wallet. Noble indeed, but it also means he and his wife have no cabfare to get home. Try that trick next time you are out with your spouse, and see what happens.

I think David's single-mindedness of purpose, and the blind devotion to the cause of his goody two shoes daughter Molly, were the factors that ultimately soured me on the last half of the novel. I don't know whether Hornby meant to write an absurdist novel, a la Thomas Berger, but it ultimately appeared that way. At one point, David and Katie are to attend a counseling session to try and salvage their marriage, and David wants to bring along DJ Good News because of his insights into relationships. Come on! And the appearance of Katie's lover at her house, in an attempt to win her away (or at least get her attention), was for me absurd.

If you look carefully you will notice Hornby's trademark wit, like his hilarious observation about Lee Harvey Oswald early in the novel, but ultimately he can't seem to pull off the weighty themes that he tackled in the novel's first half and his characters seem to spin out of control. Hornby fans will find passages they really enjoy, but for newcomers tackle High Fidelity and About a Boy first, they are superior in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Ehhhh... I was very disappointed...
Review: I have never read a Nick Hornby before and received this one as a birthday gift. Started out with a lot of promise and then just COMPLETELY lost steam. He didn't follow through on any of the issues he raised, they all just sort of faded away.

Also- I felt like I was reading a screenplay instead of a book, that Hornby was so obviously angling to create the film that will presumably be created from this, rather than a book. It was as gimmicky as "Liar, Liar" or "What Women Want" in its plot-what happens when the crankiest guy in the world becomes a 21st century hippie? Unfortunately, nothing happens, really. I was very disappointed in this one- it was a chore to finish.

Rating:
Summary: More than good enough
Review: I found this book to be just as good as any of Hornby's other work. I won't reiterate the plot, since other reviewers have done so already, but I will say that Hornby's observations on life, relationships, marriage, charity, etc. are engaging. I found myself taking quite a bit longer to read this book than I might normally take due to continuously stopping to process some paragraph or two that struck me as so true. My reaction to Hornby's latest book is much like my reactiion to the last two. His observations are so relevant, yet, he has found excellent ideas around which to build a plot.

I do wonder how women felt, since I am a man, when reading How To Be Good, given that Hornby is a man. His writing spoke to me powerfully, as before, but in the previous books (High Fidelity, About a Boy) he was writing as a man and I thought he explored the male psyche like a master. My thinking he pulled it off again as a female narrator could be just my recognizing his excellent judgement of men, and not his abilities as a writer who could pull off writing in the thoughts of a different sex.

I think other reviewers for this book may be harshly judging Hornby's latest effort by comparing it to his early work. I'm not sure I think that is fair. How To Be Good should be compared to literature not written by Hornby. In that sense I don't think it can be found wanting at all.

Rating:
Summary: Contemporary humor for upperclass atheists
Review: Hornby's new book is 'quite'in every sense:
Quite funny, quite intelligent, and quite good. But if you've never read one of his novels before, I recommend you start with About a Boy, High Fidelity or Fever Pitch. His earlier work will stand the test of time; if How to be Good will, that remains to be seen. Why?
It reads fast and the idea is very funny: if you hate your marriage and husband (because he's full of cynicism and curses in front of the children), and he suddenly sees the light of GOODness - then you might want to reconsidder your opinion.
He starts bringing healers and homeless people in to your house, gives all your money and the kid's toys to charity, and forces other people to do the same - then you hate him even more. And the nasty part is, that you have no good reason to. Because being GOOD is good, isn't it?? When even your 7 year old daughter gets infected with the GOOd-virus, and invites smelly classmates and mentally patients over for dinner, you start questioning yourself. Because what is your argument for refusing the deprived admittance to your home? or giving half of your income to youth delinquents?
Somehow though, you know you are 'normal' and the others have lost their minds. Where lies the border between being GOOD and being mad? It's this philosophical problem that Katie has to solve.
If Hornby had only restrained himself from exaggerating, the theme would've had more impact. Now, the story line and the characters are so stereotyped and bizarre, that you can't imagine it really happening. It's a funny story with some very striking insights in marital and human conducts that'll get you involved, but it keeps losing you too many times. This is the kind of book that will harvest many laughs if you summerize the story to others, and you ask yourself why you didn't enjoy it as much as you appear to have.

Rating:
Summary: Hornby's "How to be Good"
Review: Hornby should not be criticized for trying to step out of the self-referential box he's written himself into in the past. However, this book did little to move or deeply amuse me the way About a Boy and High Fidelity did. How to be Good is an intense and controversial social commentary; it also possesses a finely crafted plot with some hilarious moments, mostly involving children and infidelity. But, I just don't think Hornby has mastered the art of writing from the female point of view.

Rating:
Summary: so-so
Review: the first half of this novel was hilarious, as most of hornby's books are. then it just turns into a big whiney mess. if his intention was portray women in this vein- as big whiney messes (because they are sometimes..) then he succeeds. (he's english and therefore probably intelligent enough. hence the three stars. if david eggers had written this book, i would have given him no stars. get it?)
so if you feel as though you can read this book objectively, then by all means finish it. otherwise do as i did- read half of it (before kate becomes smugly virtuous) and then leave the book in paris for the next person who sublets that wonderful apartment in the bastille.

Rating:
Summary: Good, But Hardly Hornby's Best
Review: "How to be Good" was my fourth Nick Hornby book and, while still entertaining, I have to admit it's the weirdest of the lot. ("High Fiedelty," the first one I read, was terrific, "Fever Pitch" was also very good and "About a Boy" was above average.)

The story centers around Dr. Katie Carr, a London liberal who is unhappily married to David, a house husband who writes a cynical newspaper column and putters about, occasionally working on a truly awful novel. Katie and David are a heartbeat from ending their 20 year marriage--in fact the book opens with Katie, who is dabbling in the waters of infiedlety, asking for a divorce over her mobile phone--and their kids, Tom and Molly, are choosing up sides. Then the mysterious DJ GoodNews, a "spiritual healer" enters their lives and, eventually, their home, making Katie question her own "goodness" and turning David from the "Angriest Man in Holloway" (the title of his newspaper column) into a liberal do-gooder who brings homeless teens home to live with them and gives away Sunday dinner to the less fortunate. Suddenly, though Katie has always wished David would "lighten up," she finds herself wishing for her obnoxius husband back.

As the brief plot synopsis above may indicate this is an odd duck of a story. Hornby does the marriage stuff very well--making Katie a remarkably realistic disgruntled wife. Her wry wit and observations of marriage as jail will ring true (in an obviously exgaerrate satire) to most married folks and the commentary about liberal politics, versus liberal actions are also spot on. Unfortunately, the characters, while well drawn, don't follow a realistic path. (Why on Earth would Katie put up with all of David's outrageousness? Why would she let, first, the healer move in--and never leave--and then a homeless kid? It just doesn't track.)

Still, the book is well-written (styalistically) and quite funny in parts....

Rating:
Summary: Insightful
Review: His style is outstanding. The story is searching, painful and true to its goal.

Rating:
Summary: Just Good
Review: I am a huge Nick Hornby fan, as I am sure a lot of early twenty somethings are. His work is very candid and realistic, but his subjects have enough merit for the book to be a satisfying and worthwhile read. His writing is the exact thing I want to be reading. Its like finding a shirt that fits real well.

I loved High Fidelity for its aimless exasperation that eventually landed Rob somewhere. About a Boy was a brilliant case study of Will and Marcus' role reversal. Speaking with the Angel is good enough to stand alone - but better with the cause.

So as you may now have gathered, I had been anticipating this book rather intently. And indeed it was a good book - filled with all the bent observations and sharp commentary you have come to expect from the author. I must admit that the subject matter seemed a little out there for Hornby, who previous works focused on much more banal stuff like taking your kid to daycare or going to the record shop. But I wanted to see where he'd go with it. And for the first half of the book it was pretty hilarious (husband meeting the boyfriend), and GoodNews was kinda fun. But it kinda gets a bit whiny towards the end, and I kept looking for a resolution, and I got one. But seems like I wanted something else.

This is still better than most books out there. It may not be as good as the first few books, but its still definitely worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Decent read, but not comparable to other Hornby work
Review: I was looking forward to reading a Hornby tale from the female perspective, but was somewhat disappointed in that "How to be Good" doesn't grab as quickly or powerfully as "About a Boy," or "High Fidelity". While the original premise is certainly believable and easy to relate to, the book loses momentum and eventually credibility as her husband transforms himself into someone completely invented and surreal. By the end of the book, the most heartwarming and memorable passages involve the two very different, but touching, children.