HOW TO BE GOOD. [Hardcover]

Nick. Hornby (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Kiepenheuer & Witsch; 1st edition (2001)
• Language: German
• ISBN-10: 0641530951
• ISBN-13: 978-0641530951
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,730,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nick Hornby is the author of the novels A Long Way Down, How to Be Good (a New York Times bestseller), High Fidelity, and About a Boy, and of the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and editor of the short-story collection Speaking with the Angel. He is also the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award, and the Orange Word International Writers London Award 2003.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How to Write a Book with No Heart and Soul, October 25, 2007

By 

V. Wood "ChapelHillian" (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to be good. (Paperback)

I kept reading and waiting....waiting for the revelation, the "a-ha!" moment, the change of heart, the redemption...or a fall from grace....for any of these depressing, unlovable, self-deluded and self-centered characters that Hornby has concocted. Oh, my, this novel did drag on and on and on, waxing unpoetic about the same boring problems of a mother who thinks she "is a good person" and loves her children and family, yet from all accounts, she is a boring and unconscientious woman (with no notable feminine qualities) who blames the lack of love in her life on other people, rather that creating an environment of warmth around her. I kept thinking, is this is the point that Hornby is trying to make? That people don't change really, they only change tactics of doing things the very same way?? That people are essentially self-serving and cowardly, and there's not much to done about it???

Aside from being boring, it was an offensive book as well. This is a book from a female perspective who seems more man than woman to me. Katie, our 'heroine', is a woman who never shows one note of warmth to her kids or husband at all, and yet has the audacity to be let down by them for not giving her warmth. Groan. Again, is this a point that Hornby was trying to make? That people are selfish and self-unaware?I don't know. There was never any climax that made any points truly clear.

Maybe I didn't get what the writer was trying to do? I read 'How to Be Good' until the end, and I just put it down feeling like it was pretentious and a waste of time. I usually love dark comedy, but this was just depressing. Perhaps it is not up to my standards simply because I didn't find the characters interesting in either an inspiring or a perverse way. No matter what you read, there was NO spiritual journey to be had in this book. And honestely, the people I hang out with in real life are infinitely more interesting that any one in this book. When I got done with 'How to Be Good', I felt like my real life was a refreshing escape from this book, rather than vice versa.

5.0 out of 5 stars The million-dollar question, March 12, 2007

By 

Karen Chung (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to be good. (Paperback)

It was the title that originally attracted me to this book. Isn't trying to figure out how to "be good" the central question of all our lives? Hornby seems to have grappled with the issue himself in a deep way, and this parable - that's how I interpret it - is what he came up with. I enjoyed the wild ride through a short-lived affair, a dysfunctional marriage, an utter and disorienting about-face in what originally seemed to be the more offensive of the two partners, a deus-ex-machina solution for back pain and eczema but not emotional turmoil, and the narrator's moving out...but all along I wanted to know where it would all end up. I wasn't disappointed. I found the ending believable, and even quotable. I won't spoil it by giving it away here, since I think it was the best part of the book, and worth the long buildup.

I like the bits of British English I picked up here and there, like "bedsit".

I was impressed with Hornby's success in writing the story from a female point of view. The one time when I suppose it made the most difference was when he described the couple's marital bed routines. Otherwise the female narrator in many ways has taken on more traditionally masculine roles, such as being the main breadwinner. But the effort is convincing in any case.

This was in fact the most enjoyable book I'd read in quite a long time.