Wednesday, August 02, 2006

How To Be Good

I finished reading How To Be Good by Nick Hornby today. I had started reading at my friend Shannon's house (when I was on my mini-vacay to Kalamazoo), but I picked it up again at the used book store in town. I remembered it being darkly funny and, truth be told, I'm a little tired of my summer teen lit reading list. Well, this book was a big departure from fluffy teen lit, for sure. It's darkly funny, all right, but more "dark" than "funny." And it really didn't end well. I was shocked, actually. I turned the page, expecting to see another chapter, and when I realized that it was in fact the end of the book, I honestly thought "That's it? That can't be it." But it was. That's never happened to me before.

This book revolves around the relationship of a husband and wife on the verge of a divorce. The wife is a doctor, and therefore is a "good" person, but her husband undergoes a sort of spiritual revelation, and he wants to be a "good" person, too, but his efforts are drastic and they drive a big wedge into the family. It's pretty funny in some passages, but really not funny at all in other parts. I think that whoever read this book for USA Today and said "Hilarious" might be a little off in the head.

This is the first time I've read Nick Hornby... is he always like this?

How To Be Good - C

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Negative. I read this book a few years ago, and I felt the same way. I usually like Nick Hornsby, and How To Be Good was a let down.

Chargenda said...

This is very funny. Look for my Nick Hornby review in the next day or two. This book sort of sealed the deal that I needed to break up with my boyfriend a few years back.