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Book Reviews Title How
To Be Good Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story 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. When David suddenly becomes good,
however - properly, maddeningly,
give-away-all-his-money good - Katie's sums no
longer add up, and she is forced to ask herself
some very hard questions... Nick
Hornby's brilliant new novel offers a painfully
funny account of modern marriage and parenthood,
and asks that most difficult of
questions: what does it mean to be
good? We
Say This has been one
of the most eagerly-awaited books of the year. Nick
Hornby's excellent previous novels High
Fidelity
and About
A Boy
have left readers looking forward to another
high-quality novel. The author's ability to
translate apparently ordinary characters and
situations into hilarious and observational fiction
has been a trademark of his success. So all this
only serves to make it more difficult to comprehend
how Nick Hornby has now come up with such a lousy
book. The story sounds
great - Katie Carr, the story's narrator, is
unhappy with her marriage to David. She has become
tired of his constantly angry moods. She has
decided to end the marriage and she even begins an
affair with another man. It is just at this moment
that David decides to change his ways and become
'good'. And it's this 'good' word that becomes the
theme for the rest of the story. Is Katie a good
person? Has David now become a good person? What
does it take to be a good person? The opening two
chapters of How To Be Good are pretty solid. There
are the usual Hornby trademarks of funny
observations and a good pace develops. But things
start to go rocky from chapter three and continue
to nose dive. A big problem with How To Be Good is
that it is just plain ridiculous and annoying.
David visits a spiritual healer by the name of
GoodNews, to cure his backache. GoodNews then
becomes an annoying feature for the rest of the
book. He moves into the marital home and David
becomes a convert. Before long, Katie has to watch
whilst her husband and GoodNews embark on a number
of 'good' campaigns, such as giving away their
money and possessions. They even approach their
neighbours in the expectation that they'll take in
homeless people so they too can be good. And,
naturally, their neighbours are just as keen to be
saintly and so some agree to the idea. Hornby writes
okay from a woman's viewpoint and Katie should have
been a truely likable character if she hadn't been
allowed to fall into the category of doormat. The
whole story is a circus of unconvincing and very
unfunny events. GoodNews uses his mystical power to
cure various ailments. David joins in with many
'good' deeds that are simply insane. Katie has to
lie back and accept the fact that homeless and
unstable people are going to be popping in and out
of her home from now on, because doing so is a
'good' thing. Katie's two children, Tom and Molly,
take sides with whoever is their favourite parent.
To be fair, Tom adopts a realistic enough attitude
and resents the entire 'let's all go mad'
lifestyle. However, Molly is another character who
behaves as only a fictional character ever could.
Katie allows her daughter a level of authority
within the home that is completely
unrealistic. There are some
okay moments - flashes of wit that are undeniably
Hornby-quality. But they're too brief and too rare.
In summary, How To Be Good is a silly, unrealistic
and mostly unfunny book and to have to say that
about a Nick Hornby novel is unexpected.
A massive
disappointment. Review
by: Rob
Cook |
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