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Hornby means us to take his title literally: How can we be good, and what does that mean? However, quite apart from demanding that his readers scrub their souls with the nearest available Brillo pad, he also mesmerizes us with that cocktail of wit and compassion that has become his trademark. The result is a multifaceted jewel of a book: a hilarious romp, a painstaking dissection of middle-class mores, and a powerfully sympathetic portrait of a marriage in its death throes. It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry as we watch David forcing his kids to give away their computers, drawing up schemes for the mass redistribution of wealth, and inviting his wife's most desolate patients round for a Sunday roast. But that's because How to Be Good manages to be both brutally truthful and full of hope. It won't outsell the Bible, but it's a lot funnier. --Matthew Baylis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.I am in a car park in Leeds when I tell my husband I don't want to be married to him anymore. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A page turner...,
By
This review is from: How to Be Good (Paperback)
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
How to be good turns out not to be very good!,
By
This review is from: How To Be Good (Hardcover)
This is my first Nick Hornby book and I had such high hopes. Everything pointed toward this being very entertaining. It wasn't. It started out with lots of promise and the writing itself seemed very promising. But it went nowhere. It just died out before it ever got started. I felt like pushing it forward myself. It would have been better even if it hadn't went the way I wanted if had just went somewhere. 300 pages of a unhappy marriage and that's it. Man alive my own marriage could probably beat out this one for interesting dialogue. I'm sorry but I will read Hornby again because all I have ever heard of him seems to be so good.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Completely pointless.,
By D.Salter (Cape Canaveral) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How to Be Good (Paperback)
The premise of this novel simply did not work. Which meant the rest of the book, no matter how well written, did not work either. What a waste of a normally-good writer's talent. Avoid this book.
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