Genres
Publication
Riverhead Hardcover (2001), Edition: First Edition, 305 pages
Description
According to her own complex moral calculations, Katie Carr has earned her affair. She's a doctor, after all, and doctors are decent people, and on top of that, her husband David is the self-styled angriest man in Holloway. But when David suddenly becomes good Katie's sums no longer add up, and she asks herself some very hard questions.
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Media reviews
Readers of ''High Fidelity'' will remember that Hornby wrapped up that sharp tale of modern love with a disingenuously bright bow of a last scene. Here, the pattern's reversed, and 305 pages of treacle (cut, it must be said, with acid humor) build to a final paragraph bearing more truth about
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marriage and family than all that preceded it. Show Less
"How to Be Good" is partly a wry marital comedy about how a spouse's change of heart invariably destabilizes his longtime partner's own identity, but it's also a thorny parable about the dangers of complacent, conventional self-satisfaction. It's also a very funny and shrewd novel, like Hornby's
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others, full of acerbic observations about book-buying habits, the virtues of friends who don't really listen to what you say, the tactlessness of children, movies that all seem to "involve spacecraft or insects or noise" and the poisonous bitchiness of those dissatisfied souls who hover in the margins of the creative life. Show Less
A generation ago, Western society held an informal plebiscite to decide whether the common good would be better served by sane, decent people like Katie or lollapaloozas like GoodNews. The holy fools lost, and the vote wasn't close. It's anyone's guess why Hornby felt it was time for a recount.
You might say that, by the end, the questions this engaging book opens are too big for the lives it describes; but then, as Katie concludes, aren't they always?
Hornby's prose is artful and effortless, his spiky wit as razored as a number-two cut. There are some delightful comic set-ups, and his dialogue sings with empathy for the discordant voices of ordinary, struggling humanity
If this were a film, that would be a pretty bleak image to end on. I mean, it wouldn't be a feelgood film. Because Nick's moved on from all that easy-peasy stuff. He's matured. This is feelbad.
There are moments when this novel feels a little stale. Maybe it's just because female readers (like yours truly) grew used to falling in love with Hornby's patented diamonds in the rough; with a female protagonist daydreams accompanying reading just evaporate.
User reviews
LibraryThing member george.d.ross
The story of a woman's attempts to save her marriage after her husband becomes infatuated with new-age guru. There are so many wonderful things about this book -- instantly engaging prose, credible characterizations, too many laugh-out-loud moments to count... And it was thought-provoking without
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ever becoming preachy. Ugh, but the ending! Grim and cold and felt like a complete cop-out. Throughout the story, the characters seemed to learn a lot about themselves and their situation and what it would take to move forward in their world... and then in the last few pages, they just turn their back on all that and go back to being more or less exactly as miserable as they all were at the beginning. I understand this must have been a difficult book to end, and I was curious as to how the author was going to pull it off... but in truth, he did not, and it was ultimately disappointing. Show Less
LibraryThing member Arctic-Stranger
When the town curmudgeon becomes a candidate for Sensitive New Age Guy of the year, the sparks begin to fly. Best line from one of his kids: "I knew this would mean we would have to start going to church!"
LibraryThing member LynnB
What does it mean to "be good". Katie thinks she's a good person; she is, after all, a doctor. She's having an affair -- but she's still, based on her perception of herself, a good person.
Her husband, David, writes a regular column as the "angriest man" and rants about everything from the size of
And when Katie makes what are, to most of us, reasonable objections, she starts to wonder if she is, after all, a good person. David's work with the homeless always trumps her efforts.
Nick Hornby has written an examiniation of what it means to be good. He's also written the story of a marriage in mid-life crisis mode. And, he's done so with a dry sense of humor and wit. Katie is a wonderful character that I really identified with -- her world is changing and she is trying to understand and hold on to what's important.
Her husband, David, writes a regular column as the "angriest man" and rants about everything from the size of
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ice cream containers to public parks. Until David meets a spiritual healer and becomes a good person. He takes in homeless people, gives away half of the children's toys to a women's shelter, gives away money and food.And when Katie makes what are, to most of us, reasonable objections, she starts to wonder if she is, after all, a good person. David's work with the homeless always trumps her efforts.
Nick Hornby has written an examiniation of what it means to be good. He's also written the story of a marriage in mid-life crisis mode. And, he's done so with a dry sense of humor and wit. Katie is a wonderful character that I really identified with -- her world is changing and she is trying to understand and hold on to what's important.
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LibraryThing member UberButter
How to be Good by Nick Hornby
★★★
I am a pretty big fan of Nick Hornby but I must admit that this isn’t his best work. I appreciate the concept of the book – marriage, children, honesty, and human nature. And I enjoyed the book well enough to continue reading at quite a speed, mostly
★★★
I am a pretty big fan of Nick Hornby but I must admit that this isn’t his best work. I appreciate the concept of the book – marriage, children, honesty, and human nature. And I enjoyed the book well enough to continue reading at quite a speed, mostly
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because I was curious where it was going. So I will give credit where it is due. But at the same time, I felt like Hornby’s first attempt into a woman’s point of view lacked something and I just didn’t care for any of the characters. I found the main characters annoying and whiney most of the time and secondary characters were no better. I give it 3 stars for the storyline, not for the characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member JessicaStalker
I love Nick Hornby but this book bothered me. For one thing I kept wishing it was over. I was attached to the characters but found the storyline (though amusing at times) to be weak and uninteresting. Similarly, the ending was disappointingly un-dramatic. Of all the Hornby books I've read, this is
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by far my least favorite. Show Less
LibraryThing member Niecierpek
It was my first book by Hornby. I watched the movie, About a Boy, which I assume was based on his novel, but hadn’t read anything. The novel examines what it really means to be good in a very funny, intelligent and thoughtful way.
LibraryThing member timj
Great fun. It asks questions, that we should all consider perhaps, about how far we should go in showing a social conscience compared to how far we actually do go. Lots of really comic situations.
LibraryThing member stephmo
If one is expecting How to Be Good to offer an answer at the end of 300 pages to the question of what really happens to a marriage suffering from the neglect and battering of nearly twenty years of disinterested emotional attrition...well, it's a book about a marriage that's suffered from nearly
I'm not offering an excuse for How to Be Good per se, I'm just trying to set expectations. Hornby chose to write about that dirty little secret of long-term marriage in How to Be Good...those effortless million tiny steps one can emotionally take away from a partner if you're not paying attention are really the biggest threats your marriage will face. All of those little bits of attrition that can suddenly lead to calling your husband from a carpark one day and announcing that you no longer want to be married (and knowing you won't follow through) over some vague feeling. It can keep a marriage in limbo forever - or have you never wondered where those couples that seemingly hate one another but refuse to leave each other come from? This is where we find Katie Carr.
Of course, what Hornby may not have realized when he got into How to Be Good was that this was a fool's game. Those couples that have been playing this loss of love through attrition are not going to make big and sweeping changes. They are, after all, people of attrition. So when he does insert a major act of change into Katie's husband via DJ GoodNews, the big change becomes a philosophical question that plagues, divides and eventually grinds throughout the novel. When Katie's husband goes from being the Angriest Man in Leeds (so the column he writes says) to aspiring to the highest order of good, it becomes a crisis of identity for Katie.
While Hornby's discussions on the nature of goodness are interesting, it becomes a drain on the novel. After all, you have a marriage supposedly on the brink and adding this philosophical crisis seems to have started out with comic intentions but landed squarely into I thought this might be interesting for a plot that I found I wouldn't be able to mine that much humor from...and this one isn't turning out to be so funny either.
How to be Good has its moments, but it isn't one of Hornby's stronger efforts. You'll find some fun lines, but they're few and far between.
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twenty years of disinterested emotional attrition. Are we expecting a miracle resolution of some sort?I'm not offering an excuse for How to Be Good per se, I'm just trying to set expectations. Hornby chose to write about that dirty little secret of long-term marriage in How to Be Good...those effortless million tiny steps one can emotionally take away from a partner if you're not paying attention are really the biggest threats your marriage will face. All of those little bits of attrition that can suddenly lead to calling your husband from a carpark one day and announcing that you no longer want to be married (and knowing you won't follow through) over some vague feeling. It can keep a marriage in limbo forever - or have you never wondered where those couples that seemingly hate one another but refuse to leave each other come from? This is where we find Katie Carr.
Of course, what Hornby may not have realized when he got into How to Be Good was that this was a fool's game. Those couples that have been playing this loss of love through attrition are not going to make big and sweeping changes. They are, after all, people of attrition. So when he does insert a major act of change into Katie's husband via DJ GoodNews, the big change becomes a philosophical question that plagues, divides and eventually grinds throughout the novel. When Katie's husband goes from being the Angriest Man in Leeds (so the column he writes says) to aspiring to the highest order of good, it becomes a crisis of identity for Katie.
While Hornby's discussions on the nature of goodness are interesting, it becomes a drain on the novel. After all, you have a marriage supposedly on the brink and adding this philosophical crisis seems to have started out with comic intentions but landed squarely into I thought this might be interesting for a plot that I found I wouldn't be able to mine that much humor from...and this one isn't turning out to be so funny either.
How to be Good has its moments, but it isn't one of Hornby's stronger efforts. You'll find some fun lines, but they're few and far between.
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LibraryThing member alarra_c
A depressing but really excellent book; it made me think, and he manages to write really unlikeable people as just really human, if that makes any sense. The ending is so bleak, but it helps to retain the feeling of the whole book, the confronting theme – how unattainable and ridiculous the human
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concept of being a “good�Â? person by the deeds we do. Show Less
LibraryThing member Trotsky731
I am fan of Hornby's other works, but this one seemed too depressing to really be a "great" book. It has the usual Hornby wit and is an enjoyable read but I think it lacks where other novels by him have excelled.
LibraryThing member TanyaTomato
I didn't have much hope for this book when it starts out with the wife wanting a divorce, but her life changes after her husband visits a healer and becomes a completely different person. Now she has to deal with the healer when he moves in, and him and her husband set out to save the world.
LibraryThing member nixie
Intially i didn't think this book would be my sort of read and it wasn't, However to my suprise once i started reading i just wanted to keep on reading. It was like watching a drama next door unfold as you peep out of your bathroom window!! (not literally!). The book is about Katie who is a doctor
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who has an affair. She is married to David whom is angry man with alot to rant about and a diffcult person to live with. However David meets mr Goodnews whom turns his life around. Goodnews is a healer and self confessed healer and takes David along his journey of good deeds. However David over steps the line and starts to be to good and this is where Katie starts to re-evaulate her own life/self. I like the opening line and like the way Nick Hornby delivers his wit through his writing. If you want a relaxing read which is simple and clear to read (perhaps a book to take on hoilday!) then this is a great book to take. Show Less
LibraryThing member ctoll
This novel presents a challenge for people like me who are lefties and believe we should really put ourselves out for others. In the story, an upper middle class couple consists of a woman who is a medical doctor who "does good" every day at work, and a man who is a curmudgeon but goes through a
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transformation. He then convinces his neighbors to each take a homeless teen into their home, given that they all have spare bedrooms. It doesn't smoothly but it isn't a total disaster -- illustrating the comlexity of "being good." Show Less
LibraryThing member Griff
Funny thing: I laughed less while reading this Hornby novel than anything else written by him. I have my theories. Context. (A marriage relationship that is disintegrating.) Protagonist. (Hornby speaking from a female perspective rather than male.) The premise. (What happens when one partner in a
Yes, there are many laughs. Yes, it is quite witty. Still, it is even darker than his most recent book about four suicidal individuals who fortuitously meet on the roof of a building one evening (A Long Way Down).
Hornby's ability to have internal thoughts grab the reader in a way that says, "How did he know about that episode in my life?" is ever-present, perhaps too present in this book. His ability to do so never fails to amaze.
I think I have now made my way through the Hornby canon, and I heartily recommend any and all of his books, whether fiction or not. How To Be Good would not qualify as my favorite, but it is a very good book nonetheless.
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strained relationship suddenly never exhibits the negative behaviors supposedly contributing mightily to the strain.) The ending. ("...just at the wrong moment I catch a glimpse of the night sky...and I can see that there's nothing out there at all.")Yes, there are many laughs. Yes, it is quite witty. Still, it is even darker than his most recent book about four suicidal individuals who fortuitously meet on the roof of a building one evening (A Long Way Down).
Hornby's ability to have internal thoughts grab the reader in a way that says, "How did he know about that episode in my life?" is ever-present, perhaps too present in this book. His ability to do so never fails to amaze.
I think I have now made my way through the Hornby canon, and I heartily recommend any and all of his books, whether fiction or not. How To Be Good would not qualify as my favorite, but it is a very good book nonetheless.
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LibraryThing member heroics_
I enjoyed this book a lot.
Perhaps it's because I can see the logic in Katie's (the protagonist) disdain towards her husband and GoodNews and their deeds. But a fair deal of it is because I'm still familiar with the cultural allusions that Hornby makes.
Nick Hornby hasn't let me down yet.
Perhaps it's because I can see the logic in Katie's (the protagonist) disdain towards her husband and GoodNews and their deeds. But a fair deal of it is because I'm still familiar with the cultural allusions that Hornby makes.
Nick Hornby hasn't let me down yet.
LibraryThing member bobbieharv
Very stupid, shallow, unrealistic story about the sudden metamorphosis of an aggressive, cynical husband who gets transformed overnight by a caricature of a guru. POV of the wife, who is never fleshed out.
LibraryThing member wordygirl39
I knew several years ago that this man was my male alter-ego across the Atlantic, only much smarter because he uses words like "Damascene" and "pugnacious" in this zippy novel about the crush and pull of marriage. I hadn't read this one until just this week, and was happy to find a Hornby book I
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hadn't read yet. I do hope that A Long Way Down won't become his new direction--that was my least favorite, partly because unlike his other three novels, A Long Way Down is not very funny. And that's what makes Hornby work so well--he gets, or used to get, that tragedy is often quite funny and vice versa. Anyway, for anyone who's been married for a significant amount of time, this novel will ring as true as the tuned E string on your guitar. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ibreak4books
Excellent writer, seduces you with plot and then gives you something to think about. Tricky thing, that.
LibraryThing member louisu
This is one of those books that has been sitting on my shelf like many others in my stacks for well over a year. One of the main reasons it has yet to be read is that I didn't know how comfortable it would be to be read since I wasn't sure about the book. You see I love to read Nick Hornby because
lighthearted laugh.
That is exactly what it became a light hearted read about a woman whose entire life is turned upside down by her affair with another man and her husbands sudden change of heart as he tries to become a better man.
The only problem that I have with this book is that Nick Hornby writes men really well and he proves it by writing a woman badly. Essentially he writes from the perspective of inner turmoil, but as I read this book I felt that he could easily have switched the two main characters of the wife and husband. The book may have been a little better that way. It is a good book none the less for it is hilarious at times what the mother thinks to herself as she talks to her children as they get on her nerves. At one point it is hilarious for she simply wants to hate her children for their innocence or naivete. Her husband has a sudden change of heart from becoming the angriest man in town into a man along with a street healer decide they will change the world. He becomes a bit of quack deciding that the entire world needs to change with the help of his healer funny enough named DJ GoodNews.
Essentially the brilliance of this book is that this is a book about a family that has to change their entire perspective of the world from a middle class sheltered life when they are forced to look at their life from the perspective of people trying to help others. This is a book about reflection of a marriage and the life that people want for themselves after accomplishing all that they have ever wanted and finding their life lacking in some way. A woman questioning her marriage, her choices, her career, and even her children while her own husband makes a lifestyle change attempting to make himself a better person. This is Nick Hornby at his finest questioning the reality of the everyday life of normal people, and spefically how to be good in that life.
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he writes men so well and causes me to laugh my ass off whenever I take the time to read any of his books. The problem with this book is that he is writing from the perspective of a woman in distress during a troubled marriage. I had trouble comprehending the premise of this book from a writer of this caliber taking on a topic as complicated as a women in her middle ages. Thus it sat on my shelf for over a year looking down of my for a year till one day it same to me i needed alighthearted laugh.
That is exactly what it became a light hearted read about a woman whose entire life is turned upside down by her affair with another man and her husbands sudden change of heart as he tries to become a better man.
The only problem that I have with this book is that Nick Hornby writes men really well and he proves it by writing a woman badly. Essentially he writes from the perspective of inner turmoil, but as I read this book I felt that he could easily have switched the two main characters of the wife and husband. The book may have been a little better that way. It is a good book none the less for it is hilarious at times what the mother thinks to herself as she talks to her children as they get on her nerves. At one point it is hilarious for she simply wants to hate her children for their innocence or naivete. Her husband has a sudden change of heart from becoming the angriest man in town into a man along with a street healer decide they will change the world. He becomes a bit of quack deciding that the entire world needs to change with the help of his healer funny enough named DJ GoodNews.
Essentially the brilliance of this book is that this is a book about a family that has to change their entire perspective of the world from a middle class sheltered life when they are forced to look at their life from the perspective of people trying to help others. This is a book about reflection of a marriage and the life that people want for themselves after accomplishing all that they have ever wanted and finding their life lacking in some way. A woman questioning her marriage, her choices, her career, and even her children while her own husband makes a lifestyle change attempting to make himself a better person. This is Nick Hornby at his finest questioning the reality of the everyday life of normal people, and spefically how to be good in that life.
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LibraryThing member alceinwdld
How to be Good wasn't good, much to my disappointment. The author's female voice did not have a realistic quality to it. Although it is meant to be a humorous book, I did not find it funny. I found the writing dry, and gave up about 50 pages into the book.
LibraryThing member readingwithtea
Given the disagreement between Nick Hornby's reputation and my experience of High Fidelity, I thought I'd better let him have another shot.
While I found the protagonist's thoughts and actions much more plausible and the subject matter more meaningful, the events were so improbable that the effect
The book touches on any number of pertinent topics - divorce, family, infidelity, guilt, homelessness, faith healers, mental illness and "how to be good" - and is really quite readable (I was moderately reluctant to put it down). Both the protagonist and most of the supporting cast were of the varieties one meets in life. Even the ridiculous characters made sense as plot drivers (although their actions were completely improbable and I'm certain that such people cannot be found in London).
Worth it if you like his style.
While I found the protagonist's thoughts and actions much more plausible and the subject matter more meaningful, the events were so improbable that the effect
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of the portrayal of a "normal family life in Holloway" was spoilt.The book touches on any number of pertinent topics - divorce, family, infidelity, guilt, homelessness, faith healers, mental illness and "how to be good" - and is really quite readable (I was moderately reluctant to put it down). Both the protagonist and most of the supporting cast were of the varieties one meets in life. Even the ridiculous characters made sense as plot drivers (although their actions were completely improbable and I'm certain that such people cannot be found in London).
Worth it if you like his style.
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LibraryThing member lenoreva
After High Fidelity, I expected more from this. Although I did like the writing style, this story is just too depressing and not that interesting either.
LibraryThing member jemsw
This book started slow, and I nearly gave up on it within the first seventy-five pages, to be honest. But I'm glad I stuck with it, because directly after that, it became incredibly engaging and insightful. While Hornby still needs to work on a distinctively female voice (in part, I'm sure, because
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he's drawing out ideas of what that would be/mean), there's nevertheless a searing accuracy in the narrative voice he presents. While the book's conclusion seems weak for the dramatic tensions built into the text, there's still a very simple honesty to the resolute refusal of grand, life-changing solutions. A very funny, smart, and thoughtful novel. Show Less
LibraryThing member Amzzz
What does it mean to be good? This question is tackled, but not answered in Nick Hornby's book. Can we be good? Is it worth it? I liked the movement between a heartfelt depiction of a marriage breakdown, and the controversial solutions of 'how to be good', and their consequences on a family.
LibraryThing member neighbour
This was the first Nick Hornby book i read and although i enjoyed it, i prefer "A Long Way Down". At first i found the main character to be a bit unbelievable, as though she wasn't a real person.
ISBN
1573221937 / 9781573221931