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Summary: Cop Out Ending, Unrealistic Female Characterizations
Review: First, the praise -- there are many, many books out there that try to be funny, and very few that succeed. The sentence to sentence prose here is consistently insightful and witty, and for that reason alone, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an amusing read. I concur with other reviewers that this author is at the top of the heap of this particular genre -- early Martin Amis post-adolescent male, or what you because of a fling with someone with whom he had fantastic sex. Where is this woman in the story? I think it's a flaw that we don't get a flashback here. Even if it was supposed to be fairly meaningless sex, I think we have the right to be there. Because we didn't get a clear picture of the affair or the woman -- it seems like a cop out, or lazy writing, or un-thought out characterization. Second -- as one who has "been there, done that" as a high powered woman paired with an underachieving male she has in some ways outgrown, I can promise you that Laura, a successful lawyer in private practice, would have inevitably been drawn to the more dynamic men in her work environment. The last thing she would have been inclined to do was repeat her mistake by having an affair with a man who was an even bigger hippy loser than her original boyfriend. That was a male ego assuaging device if I ever saw one. Get a massive grip! And while it is quite concievable to me that Laura would return to Rob, as she did, in a vulnerable moment after her father died, and to baldly and rather unflatteringly admit that it was because she couldn't face starting from scratch with someone else, I didn't find the ending satisfying or believable at all. I thought it was sad that the best that Rob's new "club" could do was a Beatles cover band. Likewise, the best Laura seems to settle for is a retread of her early days with Rob, when he was a DJ. The plot ignores the fact that she's moved on in life. A woman who's progressed cannot be happy for long with a man who stays in the same place. Rob's flaw is less his tendency towards sexual infidelity -- after all, we all grew up in a promiscuous age -- but his lack of initiative with his own career. Laura did everything to set up the revival of the club, which struck me as pathetic. I gave this book to my husband to read, thinking it was an acceptable "guy" book for a person who can't stomach many novels, but being a music aficionado, he was appalled at some of Rob's musical likes and dislikes, and at some point the whole main relationship thing got so implausible that he was too nauseated and had to put it down. I managed to finish it, but felt a fake happy ending was tacked on -- I would have preferred more realistic complexity, and the book would have had more staying power if, well, he'd had to see Laura walk off with a senior partner at her firm. At least he would have been forced to grow as a character. The way the book ends, everyone ends right where they started.
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Summary: Just had to say...
Review: I read this book two years ago. It has stuck with me and I find I often recommend it as an alternative to the dysfunctional female genre. The funniest bit of writing I've read in a long time can be found in the first thirty pages, but I enjoyed the whole book.
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Summary: High Fidelity is a great book
Review: This book is a touching look into the life of a man with nothing solid to cling to. The reader will slowly become engulfed in the clarity and beauty of the simple life he leads, the way he sees things through music, and the way he sees his relationships and his life. This book is wonderful, I finished it in two days, and then went out and got "About A Boy" by Nick Hornby. High Fidelity really deserves the rave reviews it gets. This book wonderful.
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Summary: whiny start that got better
Review: it was hard to get through this book at first. I got annoyed with the main character's "woe's-me-i-got-dumped" schtick in the beginning, but it got markedy better as he developed. by the time I finished it I was glad I stuck around.
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Summary: A Close-Reading of the Self, Sparkling With Wit
Review: Nick Hornby's HIGH FIDELITY opens with a list that most teenage males and men have made variations of in their own lives: their five most memorable break-ups. Before we even know where this list is going to lead, we know protagonist Rob Fleming is going to be a guy after many of our hearts. He is the kind of guy that pays extremely close attention to his relationships with women, is always looking for that "perfect" girlfriend (in the sense of perfect for him), and if pressed just a bit, could readily produce the names of every girl that ever deigned to kiss him romantically on the lips. Not that this is a good thing, but it's just something we can do, kind of like being able to rattle off the last ten NCAA basketball champions. Self-obsessed? Sure. Recognizable? Like the sun in the sky. Rob is a 35-year-old North London record shop owner who never recovered from the toughest of those five break-ups--the one that stunned him right out of college. He knows his chosen musical genres obsessively, but no longer quite as obsessively as his employees, the overbearing Barry and timid Dick. The shop and his music, however, seem to make up Rob's whole world, and he is not comfortable outside them. Nor is he happy with himself outside of a monogamous relationship. So why (consciously or not) does he always sabotage them? Following Rob as he seeks the answer to this question can be hilarious and sad and rejuvenating. Hornby's prose is consistently keen of wit and often raucously funny. Because there's just so much literature out there I want to experience, I almost never re-read books. I read HIGH FIDELITY twice in six weeks--Nick Hornby taught me how silly I was.
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Summary: A True Music Lover's Guide to Relationships
Review: A friend of mine gave me a copy of this book for Christmas. What a revelation! I had never heard anything about Nick Hornby but his book seemd to be describing me as if we had been close friends since childhood. The way his narrator uses music to classify and understand life is something not only myself but I'm sure countless others as well. The story is thoroughly entertaining and anyone who is looking for an insight into the middle aged man's mind need look no further. Fans of pop culture will laugh (or at least knowingly smile) at the references to Cheers, Elvis Costello and James Bond. Those people who are looking for simply a good tale will find Rob's journey to relationship nirvana a rewarding and compelling trip worth taking.
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Summary: Someone wrote my life story.
Review: Since I run a record store, and have had some pretty horrible relationships, I thought this book was written exclusively for me. Sure this book is funny, but, it hit so close to home, that I'm sitting at home in the dark all Sunday, with Etta James to keep me company. Caught them filming some of this movie over the summer in Wicker Park. Between this and Lloyd Dobbler, John Cusack and I have some sort of bond. He knows me.
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Summary: High Fidelity? High Reality for Thirtysomething Males
Review: As a 41 year-old male it irks me somewhat to recognize so many of the ideas and thoughts in this book. Hornby freely writes about so many things that most guys would not admit to thinking. I'm only in the middle of the book now, but it has already proven to be a funny, perceptive, worthwhile read. Should women read it? No. I don't really want them to know how transparently patheric we are or can be. This will only confirm their suspicions. Now, if there were only a similar book about women it might even the playing field. Does Amazon facilitate chats about books?
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Summary: every single man should read this book
Review: having just devoured "High Fidelity" at break-neck pace, i feel compelled to type a few lines in support of this grand novel. i found myself re-living my great disappointments in the relationship dept. and like Rob (the central character) music has become a buoy to keep me from going over the edge. never before has such a novel hit home as to what i'm doing wrong with my relations with women. and just for the record (no pun intended) it was an ex-lover who lent me the book to read. fancy that.
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Summary: Hornby nails the male psyce
Review: Ive read that men should not let their girlfriends read this book, because it gives up all of our secrets. I don't think High Fidelity is so devistatingly honest, but one thing is for sure. Hornby knows how to relate the male experience better than most of the contemporary authors I have read. This book, in particular, has a stylish quality that is refreshing. The constant categorizing and listing the main character does is so perfect. It is easy to relate, as a music fan, to this character, though one cannot help but wonder how he gets by, especially in London of all places. Hornby prooves witty and charming in High Fidelity. I would give it 5 stars, but I didn't want it to end the way it did. If you like good music, or being a man, or even if you want to get a bit of an idea how we think, I definately recommend this one.
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