Rating: 
Summary: How to be good
Review: I have to agree with some of the posts that I see below. This was a very odd book. I purchased it thinking it was going to be one of those British-like "Bridget Jones" books. How far from the truth.The characters were wimpy and boring. Good News should have been kicked out of the house along with the husband and the coniving daughter. This was a waste of a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Satire For The Times
Review: Meet an average 40 something British couple with marital problems. She's a doctor with decidedly liberal leanings and is considered the "good" one in the marriage only now she's having an affair. He's a columnist known as "the angriest man in Holloway" and makes a living by ranting about everything and everyone - he's not easy to live with. To annoy his physician wife he decides to see a faith healer known as GoodNews about his bad back and ends up coming away a changed man. He forgives his wife and decides to give away many of their possessions (including his son's computer because they don't need two). He starts a community program to encourage his neighbors to take in homeless teenagers and basically begins to try and convince his wife that it's their duty to change the world and make it a better place. She's now forced to decide just how good do you have to be in order to be a good person, she doesn't want a homeless kid in the house and she's worked hard for the things they have but how do you say no. I read this book right after reading Carol Sheild's Unless and I thought this was a much more truthful look at what it means to be good and how much self sacrifice is too much.
Rating: 
Summary: the pulse of the times!
Review: Hornby's writing style is breezy but packed with lots to think about. And to boot, he's amusing along the way. I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't take something away from his chatty story about a family in distress but whose members are on the way to finding ways to cope with life and all of it's detours and roadblocks.
Rating: 
Summary: Was there a point to this book?
Review: As I finished this book, I couldn't beleive it was over. What a wimpy ending, if you can even call it an ending. The main premise of the book seemed to be to remind its readers that they have everything, there are people who have nothing, and that the readers should give their possessions away and then they will have nothing too. Being good in this book seemed to have everything to do with money, and nothing to do with the soul: especially conerning the scene with GoodNews's sister. An absolutely pointless, stupid book. Don't read this.
Rating:
Summary: Not Hornby's Best
Review: I am a big fan of Nick Hornby's work. I really enjoyed High Fidelity and About A Boy. I have always had a hard time associating closely with Hornby's characters (they always seem to have no spine, little self esteem, and no decisiveness), but usually the laughs and the Hornby's wit make the reading enjoyable enough. Here are the main problems I had with the book. 1) I absolutely cannot relate to Kate. I don't live in the UK (an important point because there is a point in this book that require some knowledge of divorce laws in England). I have no husband to cheat and I have no children. I understand that I cannot directly relate to every character in every book, but it is author's responsibly to draw us in. 2) The book was simply not funny or witty enough to carry me through. 3) Hornby's disdain for new age enlightened-types (remember "Ian" in High Fidelity?) is stripped of all subtlety and humor with the introduction of Good News. 4) The complicated moral questions the book poses are displayed in very simple black and white terms, and it takes the whole book for someone to reach the middle ground.
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Summary: Is "Good" In the Eye of the Beholder?
Review: In his past novels, Nick Hornby has provided insight into the mind of the modern adult single male. So it was a bit of a surprise to begin "How To Be Good" and be confronted with a female protagonist. Interestingly enough, despite her gender, Katie Carr is not terribly different from the male leads in earlier Hornby novels - a person struggling with a healthy dose of self-doubt about relationships and pretty much just life in general. Where Hornby does venture into a new territory is in creating something other than just a humor-filled slice-of-life narrative about dating. While both the search for love and Hornby's characteristic wit are intact, there is that title question that reverberates throughout this novel - how to be good? Not unlike Katie, many of us go through our lives in a fairly uneventful manner thinking we are "good" (keeping relationships alive, going to work, having a roof over your head, etc). But in this very materialistic society, does one have to do more -- taking in homeless people, giving food and money to those in need, or donating that extra computer to charitable group. These are just some of the scenarios Katie faces after her husband David has a mid-life crisis (epiphany?) following a meeting new age guru-type. Also confronted with her own guilt over an extramarital affair, Katie wonders if doing something "bad" cancels out all one's "good"? There are certainly some intriguing questions to ponder while reading this comic novel which could easily be dismissed as a superficial (if not at times wacky) look at a marriage in crisis. However, be forewarned that there are no answers within the pages of this book - and what would be the point if there were? While Hornby stretches reality at times, this is still the rare humorous read that makes one reflect somewhat seriously on one's own life. The key may be figuring out first "what is good" before starting on the journey of "how" to get there.
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Summary: GOODNESS CAN BE SO DULL!
Review: In How to be Good, Nick Hornby takes on the issue of what goodness truly is. Is it an altruistic thing or do people subscribe to it simply to make themselves FEEL good? David and Katie are your normal married couple in their late 30's, and typical of most marriages. Yes, in other words, they are terribly unhappy. Katie is pondering what the meaning of her life is about. It can't simply be to be a wife, to raise the kids, and to service her husband. After all, she is a doctor, respected if not loved by her patients. Her husband is the one who doesn't have a real job, except when he writes columns for the local newspaper. So she decides to have an affair to lessen the boredom of it all. Their marriage is already dead but it's almost as if noone wants to rock the boat or they are too afraid to get a divorce. All this changes when David takes their daughter to a faith healer called GoodNews who cures her skin condition with just a touch of his hand. He converts David to an almost Christ-like world view in which we are put here merely to help others. We should not hate, or harbor anger. We should love everyone, we should give our spare bedroom to ex-criminals, we should give our extra luxury items to the poor. We don't need 3 computers and 3 televisions in one house. Give them to the poor! Of course this is going to create havoc with Katie's already shaky hold on reality and meaning. Katie has no idea what to think of it, and the family becomes split with David and their daughter on one side and Katie and their son on the other. Hornby confronts what goodness is. Honestly, someone who is good in American culture is looked down upon and ridiculed as being "a goody two shoes" etc. Really, when it comes down to it, people that always do the right thing are pretty dull and a drag. That is why David drives her up the wall. Hornby does a good job here but I doubt his lasting impact as a writer simply because he peppers his work with so many pop culture references. Who is going to remember Britney Spears in a hundred years, or even in 20? He seems too stuck on our own time instead of making something timeless. This book was good, but not great. Hornby doesn't really seem like a writer who will grow, he will just stay at the same level as this.
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Summary: My new favorite book
Review: This book replaces "The World According to Garp" as my latest favorite book. If you did not like Garp, then you will not agree with my review. If you did not like Garp and you did not like this book, then perhaps you and I are reading books at two very different levels. The story of this book is quite simple and straightforward. The protagonist suffers from worries that many of us, male and female alike, also worry about in trying to live a "good" life. It doesn't matter whether Katie is belieable as a woman (I thought she was, and I am a woman). The strength of the book isn't so much in the story and the characters as entertainment, but in what the story and the characters make you think about yourself, your own life and the lives of those around you. I found the book to be a commentary on society such as I have never read, but have often thought on my own. It sheds light on the futulity of our continuous search for meaning. I finished the book last night, and am planning to start reading it again tonight!
Rating:
Summary: Utter waste of time
Review: Perhaps I am missing something that others seem to have found appealing, but this book was possibly the worst novel I have ever read. The characters are almost without exception loathsome, and at no point did I ever feel like the protagonist was actually a woman-- it read like a man's idea of how a woman thinks and feels. When I finished the book (and how agonizing that was), I was not relieved-- I was angry at the writer, and angry at myself for even picking this one up. Do not waste your time or money.
Rating:
Summary: Sitcoms do it better
Review: Really deserves one star. The kind of "perverse" reversal that occurs in this piece of nonsense has been done before--namely all or most at least of the Britcoms that I have seen over the years. Problem is they do it so much better. If anyone recalls "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" I'm sure you'll understand what I am talking about. In fact I believe the author of those books was someone named David Nobb. But after the Monty Pythons and some of the others --in fact even Americans are doing it better, eg. The Simpsons and Larry David. . . how can anyone think this book so funny?
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