How to Be Good

Rating:
Summary: A fun read that is defeated by its premise
Review: Nick Hornby can certainly write. I don't think anyone would deny him that. His dialogue is always snappy. His books manage to be laugh out loud funny and trenchantly observant at the same time. He has an enormous generosity and love towards his characters. He is possibly the best pop-novel writer working today. High Fidelity has been one of my favorite books for a long time, and surprisingly (considering I treat pop culture very similarly to Rob, Dick and Barry) I'm not ashamed to admit it. Certainly the pop culture man-children that Hornby has been previously obsessed with would poo-poo his books as artificial and bougeouis.

But he's off of slackers these days. In HOW TO BE GOOD, Dr. Katie Carr suffers through her husband's transformation from insufferable angry sarcastic meanspirited bastard to doe-eyed, charitable, loving bastard. As Katie struggles with her husband David's conversion, she begins to realize that she can't reconcile her liberal values with her hatred of her husband's desire to do everything he can for those in need.

Hornby has certainly dealt his readers a pickle. Anyone familiar with how deep white liberal guilt runs will be startled with a recognition of their innermost thoughts just as pretty much any insecure twenty-somethingth man's face will light up when he reads High Fidelity. The problem is that Nick Hornby has dealt himself waters too difficult for his ship to navigate. As the novel reaches its last thirty pages, it almost completely falls apart. No solutions are given, the characters just give up and settle down. Whereas in High Fidelity, this seemed a note of much-needed realism brought the romantic comedy genre, in How TO Be Good, it feels like Hornby himself has given up. The ideas are Too Big for him to handle.

In other words: read it, but don't expect much enlightenment.

Rating:
Summary: Not very good
Review: This third fictional book by neo-pop author Nick Hornby seems, at first sight, like his previous one. But this time the protagonist is a woman, not a man. But the differences stop there. Katie Carr is entering her forties, and midlife crisis has arrived early for her. She wants to divorce her suddenly-crazy husband, but lacks courage to do so. Her family is falling apart, strangers come to live in her house, and her medical practice is full of lunatic people. With that many problems, she spends the whole book trying how to be cool.

The problem is, Hornby is repeating himself. In this third book, there's nothing new, unless you count the fact that a woman is the central character - but that woman looks incredibly like the previous male characters. In fact, most of the story is simply boring and, at times, pointless. Katie keeps telling the readers she's a good person, while her actions contradict her every time. OK, "How to be good" could be an ironic work. But if it's so, the irony escaped me.

There's no ending to this book. I think Hornby wanted to pass the notion that life goes on, and that most people don't have immediate answers to their problems, but it didn't work for me. After finishing it, I realised "How to be good" didn't make any difference to me. It's not a bad book, it's not a good book, it's a book to be forgotten.

Grade 5.0/10

Rating:
Summary: Just cause it isn't believable doesn't mean it isn't true
Review: A lot of the reviews I just skimmed mention this book's "unbelievable premise" or variations on that, but I'll be honest: I lived through the events in the book. The person in my family didn't go through the exact same conversion as the husband in "How to Be Good," but it was the same type; and it was just as abrupt, just as unexplained, with no inciting incident or foreshadowing. It's the kind of thing that happens, and Hornby does an excellent job of showing how it can change and fracture a family, and just how difficult it can be to deal with -- if someone's doing no obvious harm, or in fact doing things which sound "good," on what grounds do you complain about them? How do you justify leaving them?

That's the sort of conflict the protagonist faces -- made stronger by the fact that her husband's change has made him an almost compulsive philanthropist.

This is the only book I've ever thrown across a room, except for times when I was trying to kill a cockroach; parts of it were intensely frustrating because I related so well to them, and I just had to stop reading. The four star rating is, frankly, a guess; when you're this close to the material it's all but impossible to rate it fairly.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing read on several levels...
Review: ...For starters if you were a fan of previous Hornby gems like 'High Fidelity,' and 'About A Boy,' my bet is that you will ultimately find this to be a crap read. The book spends the bulk of its pages locked up in the mind of the protagonist as she internally tussles back and forth on the merits and negatives of ethics, morals, familial strife and approaching mid-life crisis. Some readers may find such internal dialogue to be somewhat captivating, however, less then 50 pages into the book I found myself highly annoyed by the whininess and lack of pro-active action of our protagonist and practically forced myself to read through the remainder of this novel.

With that being said, the book does improve the further you go with the occassional vintage Hornby moments of subtle humour and crafty dialogue but even these few redeeming moments surely do not justify the time required to slog through this book. While Hornby's prowess as a writer is certainly not in question, his experiment in capturing middle-aged fem angst certainly is. Nice, bold experiment on his part though.

Rating:
Summary: Hornby's Deepest Work to Date
Review: The real strength of this book comes from Nick Hornby's rich portrayal of Katie, and the issues she deals with in an everyday way. I never thought that Hornby could accurately characterize a woman, but boy oh boy was I wrong. But as much fun as Katie's character is (and believe me, she is great), the real issue is, "What does it mean to be good?" Katie is a doctor and helps people daily, and she truly wants to help people, so just because she's had an affair and sometimes hates her husband, does that make her a bad person? On the other hand, for years her husband has been the angriest man in the neighborhood, sour and mean, but all of a sudden he reforms and vows to do good and move homeless teenagers into the homes of his neighbors, things like that. Does that make him a good person, or does the past still count? I think that Hornby's previous books have been fantastic, but this one works on a deeper level. It's not so much what you read, but what you begin thinking about after you've finished the book: it's far more encompassing than his previous novels.

As for his style: it's very clean and simple; uncomplicated. This book is so easy to read, and Hornby's signature tounge-in-cheek humor is in full force. I did feel that the ending was rushed and somewhat unsatisfying, but in the same way I kind of liked the ending after I gave it some thought. For all of Hornby's humor, this is not a happy book. The ending is appropriate in a way. It's amazing how what appears to be such a simple book brings up such complicated issues. He's definitely an easy read, and I would recommend this book to any first-time Hornby readers. For his other fans, it probably isn't what you would expect, but still at his level and will not disappoint.

The greatest asset for this book is that Hornby manages to write about serious stuff in a purely arbitrary way, but then pulls it off so beautifully that it's almost wrong how enjoyable it is. This fact alone is a good enough reason to read "How to Be Good."

Rating:
Summary: Hornby's not good, he's great
Review: I find it amusing that all of the negative comments listed are from male reviewers who were fans of Hornby's earlier male protaganists.They don't like this novel because they don't get it. Hornby's genius is that he has completely turned his point of view upside down in "How To Be Good" by speaking from the female psyche. (And there, I am afraid, is where he lost his self absorbed, young male following.) There is, whether these young male reviewers know or admit, a new dynamic happening in society that we really haven't seen in novels, and Hornby has noticed and is telling it like it is. The new elements are: "Strong female protaganist in mid-life who is professionally successful, but emotionally starved" and the other side to that coin, "Brooding malcontent husband in mid-life whose career is floundering and as a result, is unsure of his role." This is not unbelievable, it is the very real scenario of at least three families I know. The plot device that is employed to "question the questions" is DJ GoodNews the faith healer, who I actually found to be quite human and believable. Hornby gives him an intentionally obvious name to underscore the nature of this deliciously drawn character. GoodNews is one corny, crazy, simplistic, obvious, but unnervingly honest dude. Rational Kate wants to discount him but he keeps tripping her up.This is a more spiritual (and dare I say more realistic) variation on the themes explored in the film "As Good As it Gets," but made more complex by the obligations associated with a stalled marriage, and told from the female perspective. An ambitious undertaking, skillfully, truthfully and humorously crafted.

Rating:
Summary: A page turner...
Review: I was told that I would not be able to put down "How To Be Good," and it delivered -- I set aside most of my weekend chores to find out what became of the characters. The premise, although fanciful, was intriguing, because it seeks to answer a question many of us struggle with: how do you know for sure you're a good person? Katie Carr, the novel's protagonist, is struggling with that question, and with her disappointment in her domestic life. Married for 20 years and basically miserable, she is engaging in a half-hearted affair and considering divorce when her husband goes through an uncharacteristic spiritual conversion, changing the course of their future.

Although the characters are stock (especially the couple's two children, who seem faceless they are so bland), the writing shines when it examines the guilt that accompanies the middle class lifestyle, and the desire to do something to assuage it. Although some of the symbolism is a bit obvious (the New Age guru who guides their spiritual change is named GoodNews), the inner conflict of the characters rings true.

Like his two previous novels, Hornby is taking his protagonist on a journey from sniveling immaturity to greater depth. It differs from "High Fidelity" and "About A Boy", though, in its conclusions, which seem vague. Katie doesn't seem any happier at the end of this journey than she was to begin with; and some of the final thougths seem tacked on arbitrarily, including the silly final image, which doesn't satisfy. Maybe Katie is simply a selfish malcontent, like an older version of Will from "About A Boy". Although I'm all for readers drawing their own conclusions, something felt left out of the last chapter, as if Hornby needs to live a few more years before he decides what he thinks about all of this.

Rating:
Summary: Not great -- but worthwhile
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed How to Be Good. Another great read from Nick Hornby, I thought, full of admiration for such a wonderful talent. Then I looked at the reviews on Amazon.com. I couldn't believe how mixed they were.

Then a pattern emerged. The ones that hated it usually started out with how much they loved his earlier work. Then they would criticize the two-dimensional characters and the unbelievable plot. Finally, for the more pretentious, there's an invitation to read "real" literature, like Dostoyevsky.

To sum up, how dare Hornby write a book about something other than "How to Grow Up"? And how dare he introduce characters that aren't "realistic"? (these people would criticize ET because it was unrealistic).

In answer to all those one- and two-star reviews on this page: I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that Nick Hornby wrote a breezy novel about contemporary adults and their everyday problems - you know, little things like trying to find satisfaction as we get older and our lives have settled into well-worn grooves - and not about the aging, but still immature, male.

And instead of a really cool protagonist, we get a weary and confused narrator. So unrealistic to be so flawed. And who can believe in a trippy faith healer and a suddenly transformed house husband? Yet all of the characters spoke and acted in ways that seemed utterly real - in the context of the novel.

I will admit that the novel seemed more like a first draft than a fully realized work, but that doesn't mean it's not worthwhile. The ending felt rushed, while also containing some lovely writing about the importance of reading, as well as a moving final image (perhaps a hint of the greatness Hornby may yet achieve). But that's Hornby - even his lesser efforts contain gold. Last I checked, Van Gogh's sketches were pretty highly regarded. Not that comparing Hornby to a past master is fair. But what a pleasure to read he is. And how artfully he examines the everyday issues so many of us are concerned with.

Nick Hornby has much to say. He's still young. He hasn't produced his definitive work yet. I, for one, am looking forward to Hornby's future efforts.

Rating:
Summary: deathly dull, thin as paper
Review: What a disappointment. Reads like Nick Hornby wrote this over a weekend. Paper thin and very uninvolving. It isn't funny, or particularly knowing. Don't waste your money.

Rating:
Summary: Drivel...
Review: This book could have been a refreshing move away from the pedestal that Hornby was beginning to find himself upon - the voice of men who don't really want to grow up. He was brave to tackle a new subject area. But he didn't pull it off.

To be short, he can't write a believable female protagonist.

Not only that, he surrounds her with characters, sets up an interesting idea, and then does nothing with it - for page after interminable page. A failing marriage is great material... but Hornby fails to deliver a plot, and after endless meanders the book waddles over a limp finish line. You'll get more entertainment reading all of these reviews.. and it costs less, too.