How to Be Good

Rating:
Summary: good premise, but...
Review: ...not execution. What sounded great on the back-cover fails to grab and Hornby tends to ramble. The laughs are rare. The story also doesn't have the poignancy of _About A Boy_, because here the characters are too cartoonish to be taken seriously. I had problems finding sympathy for any of them, even Katie. She whinges about her hubby when he's bad and then even more when he becomes GOOD, but she never really does much about it.

I hope Hornby's next book will mark a return to the standards he set himself in _High Fidelity_ and _About A Boy_.

Rating:
Summary: Yes and No
Review: This time, Nick Hornby changes his writing style and the story is a much stranger one, but nevertheless interesting.
The question presented here is a very important one (how can a person be good?), and Hornby doesn't really answer it.
He gives us an example of a family that tries to be good, each member in his/her own way, and how things turn out.
Well, even though when Katie (the main character) is sceptical, Hornby really does wonders, when things are actually happening, things don't turn out so well.
His examples are strange and far-fetched (a man's complete inner change thanks to a faith healer, a doctor who tries to do her best but keeps failing, an ecstasy consuming miracle worker, two children that don't exactly get the message of goodness), the plotline hardly visible, the whole message clumsily explained.
However, when Katie Carr is thinking, Hornby does an excellent job of making us see how feelings of fear, anger, pain are inevitable, but goodness is above all that.

Still, the theme in the book just doesn't develop well.
The book is indeed fast-paced and entertaining, with some funny moments but those who like Nick Hornby will find themselves having mixed feelings, and those who don't know him, won't get too excited.

Rating:
Summary: Beats high fidelity
Review: Having picked this up out of chance to get a book to take on holiday with me i was'nt really sure of what to excpect, what i found was a comical book that runs through smoothly and is quite hard to put down. I found the book very well written and well maintained and i would recommened it for anybody looking for a read thats not too heavy duty and is enjoyable, i was suprised that high fidelity is the one most people seem engrossed in as this has a much better plot though high fidelity is good it lacks what this offering has. So if you want a lucid book then this is always a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Hornby's previous books; however, this book was a huge disappointment. As one reviewer mentioned, he has changed his tone in this novel, that wasn't the problem. The book was simply uninteresting, the main character was unappealing, the plot/dilemma is revealed within a few chapters and from there the book doesn't move, the same problem is reviewed over and over, the same character traits are displayed repeatedly with no forward plot movement. I am an avid reader and cannot remember the last time I did not finish a story regardless of how bad it was. This book did me in, I ended up skimming through the last two chapters and wishing I hadn't bothered.

Rating:
Summary: Missing that Hornby flair
Review: Having been a Hornby fan for quite sometime, I snapped this up when it first came out and was eager to tear into it! The story is, conceptually, very intriguing, and starts off in true Hornby fashion, a delightful read. However, as the plot winds on, the story and the concept fall flat. I had to force myself through to the end, and was left very disappointed.

Of course, I will most certainly read whatever he puts out next. Besides, everyone deserves a good flop now and then. Kudos for the effort, and high hopes that what is to follow far surpasses this one!

Rating:
Summary: Snappy review title
Review: As a recent high school grad with an extraordinary amount of time on his hands I found that I had never really read anything that had not been assigned to me. With the idea firm in mind that each book should be a sophisticated learning experience it appeared strange to me that I would actually want to read anything in my spare time but then I read High Fidelity after adoring the movie for some time. I read through it in 2 days, and then About a Boy in 1, but when I got to How to be Good I slowed down a bit. Rather than knocking it out in a day it took me a week, but this had little to do with lack of interest in the book.

Undoubtedly the plot is known to anyone searching through the reviews so for the sake of conversation I shall skip it. I have read from others that the characters and plot are unbelievable, cartoonish even, but then again they always have been. The fact that someone might not like this book but loved his earlier ones has a lot to do with subject matter, namely the fact that it deals a great deal with spirituality rather than music or materialistic attributes. They will not change, but then again they do not want to, they identify too strongly with the kind of character Nick Hornby is trying to defame and invariably they will get angry at a character hell-bent on becoming a better person.

The book has long chapters, at least in comparison to the sometimes brisk pacing of 6-12 pages in his earlier work, and thus a chapter becomes a fuller and larger idea that at times makes it tiring to continue reading. If anything the book proves that no one is really good, and it does it beautifully taking its time in its extended chapter room. There are times when disbelief in the children's actions may arise, but the doubt is somewhat necessary because if you're not willing to believe children are unkind then there is no way that this book will speak to you.

In the end one just has to be open enough to believe that this is fiction and while there is definitely a stretch of reality here, (About a Boy was somewhat unbelievable in many of the same aspects), there are finite reasons for taking it at face value. It may not be the best in his catalogue, but it's very hard to deny his ability to create a pop masterpiece within literature.

Rating:
Summary: Good effort, but missing the 'Hornby' touch
Review: I'm a huge Nick Hornby fan but I couldn't fully enjoy this book no matter how hard I tried. Perhaps it's because I hold Hornby up to higher standards than other authors but this book just seemed flat and hurried. The idea and premise of the book was good but Hornby just couldn't seem to pull it all together to make it work. This is not classic Hornby but it was a nice try. I won't hold it against him and I'll purchase the next book in the hopes that it's another "High Fidelity" or "About A Boy." He's a great writer...just don't judge him by this book.

Rating:
Summary: Nice and easy on important issues
Review: In this novel Nick Hornby adresses some really important questions: Is it possible to be good in modern society? But what does the word "good" really mean? These are questions the novel's female main character has to face, when her cynical husband suddenly transforms into the male English equivalent of Mother Theresa. Is she ready to give up "normal life" to help make the world a better place?

This is probably Hornby's most serious book, in the way that it deals with more than just passions and relationships ("Fever Pitch", "High Fidelity"). It never reaches the great philosophical heights, but that might be one of Hornby's greatest strengths; it will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered if that small amount given to charity each year is really enough to make you a good person.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely Good, But Not Our Beloved Nick's Greatest
Review: Nick Hornby's third novel is his first foray into a woman's narrative perspective. He does a fine job of making Dr. Katie Carr believable and interesting from the first chapter when she realizes she's the kind of woman who tells her husband she wants a divorce via cell phone while sitting in a parking lot. Her husband David refuses, but unlike many unhappily married folk who promise to change to save the relationship, he really does change. He becomes an annoyingly sincere and gentle person, in fact. Katie notes that he turns into "a sort of happy-clappy right-on Christian version of Barbie's Ken" without Ken's looks and body. Formerly the author of a newspaper column, "The Angriest Man in Holloway," David, with the assistance of a strange guru character (DJ GoodNews) eschews hatred and concocts various plots to make the world a better place.

Katie struggles with liking the new David even less than the old one (especially after he gives 80 pounds of their money to a panhandler and invites GoodNews to move in). David's transforms into a sort of liberal person's worst nightmare: he gives away the children's toys to the less fortunate, calls a neighborhood meeting to discuss the housing of runaways and streetkids--he wants to take ACTION. Hornby's believable depiction of certain unbelievable scenes was certainly enough to make this liberal person squirm. After all, what is it that can safely allow anyone to think that she or he is a "good person?"

Hornby fans will already have read this book, and rightly so. If you are just now coming to Hornby, however, you should start with the superb HIGH FIDELITY and then move on to the excellent ABOUT A BOY. There's something smooth and understated and invariably insightful about Hornby's prose that no contemporary reader of "good" fiction should miss. Cheers!

Rating:
Summary: How to be Almost Good
Review: What a promising beginning, a delightful middle, and a disappointing ending! Loved the first 90% of the book, but then it took a nose-dive. Nearing the end, I remember thinking "How is Hornby going to pull off a great ending with only 20 pages to go?" Well, the answer is that he couldn't. Truly had a good time reading it, but it just fell flat at the end.