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Juliet, Naked

by Nick Hornby

3.48 · rating details · 12,239 ratings · 2,169 reviews

Annie loves Duncan — or thinks she does. Duncan loves Annie, but then, all of a sudden, he doesn't. Duncan really loves Tucker Crowe, a reclusive Dylanish singer-songwriter who stopped making music ten years ago. Annie stops loving Duncan, and starts getting her own life.

In doing so, she initiates an e-mail correspondence with Tucker, and a connection is forged between tw...more

Hardcover, 406 pages

Published September 29th 2009 by Riverhead Books (first published January 1st 2009)

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Community Reviews

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May 21, 2010

Kim rated it

Shelves: favorite-authors, mmx, contemporary

Why do we read? No, it’s not a rhetorical question. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about a lot the last few days. I mean, yeah.. the obvious reasons… to access information, to brush up on our morality, because we’ve been assigned to. So we can have uh.. passionate discussions, hook up, impress, escape, retreat and regroup. So we don’t feel as alone as…As what? That’s for you to answer.. not me.

So, Nick Hornby is one of my revered authors. He’s a downright O-M-G in ...more

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May 04, 2011

Knowledge Lost rated it

I went into this book thinking "Who would Hugh Grant play in the movie adaptation" and who would play all the other characters. I’ve settled on Emily Blunt for Annie, Hugh Grant as Duncan and Tucker Crowe to be played by Jeff Bridges. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun reading this book; it just fitted so well as an English Rom-Com and I enjoyed every minute of this book. There is no great depth to this book but it was a pleasure to read.

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Nov 23, 2009

Teresa rated it

All night I was going back and forth in my head as to whether to give this 4 or 5 stars, and as I couldn't think of why not to give it 5, I decided to do so. I really enjoyed this character-driven book. Hornby has a warm and generous talent for creating honest, flawed, likable characters. (And for those who might think Hornby can only create male characters, he's created a female protagonist here (Annie) that is as good as the main character (Katie) in "How to be Good.") Along with...more

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Jul 30, 2011

James Thane rated it

Nick Hornby has written a number of very good novels focusing on music and the sometimes geeky males who become obsessed with it to the point where they never really escape their adolescence. In consequence, their romantic lives are usually a mess as well.

Enter Duncan, an undistinguished British college professor is a small, backwater seaside town. Duncan, who teaches his students how to properly understand the significance of American television programs like "The Wire," h...moreNick Hornby has written a number of very good novels focusing on music and the sometimes geeky males who become obsessed with it to the point where they never really escape their adolescence. In consequence, their romantic lives are usually a mess as well.

Enter Duncan, an undistinguished British college professor is a small, backwater seaside town. Duncan, who teaches his students how to properly understand the significance of American television programs like "The Wire," has devoted much of his life to the study of Tucker Crowe, an obscure American singer-songwriter who abruptly disappeared from view twenty years ago and who has not been heard from since. Duncan and a small handful of other Crowe addicts spend hours on the Internet, deconstructing Crowe's songs, speculating about what might have become of him, and tracking every rumor about the man. In their spare time, they tour various sites associated with Crowe, most notably the restroom in a Minneapolis bar where, legend has it, some unexplained catastrophic event led Crowe to abandon his fans and his career.

Annie, a museum curator has been living with Duncan for fifteen years. She has patiently endured Duncan's slavish devotion to Crowe, but her relationship with Duncan has left her unfulfilled for a good long time, and only inertia has prevented her from moving on. Then, apparently out of nowhere Duncan receives in the mail a demo version of Crowe's most famous album, "Juliet." The new album is called "Juliet, Naked." Duncan is apparently the first of Crowe's fanatic fans to hear the CD, and, overcome by the honor, he posts a breathless review to the web, pronouncing the record brilliant.

Annie feels differently about it and joins the online discussion about Crowe for the first time with a review describing what she feels are the record's shortcomings. This provokes a serious crisis in Annie and Duncan's relationship because she has dared to dissent from his "expert" point of view and because, in Duncan's view, she is too short-sighted to recognize a work of genius. It doesn't help that Annie opened the CD addressed to Duncan and listened to it before he could.

The disagreement about "Juliet, Naked" finally calls into question the whole nature of the relationship between Annie and Duncan. Things then take another unexpected turn when the artist himself breaks twenty years of silence and sends Annie an e-mail message agreeing with her assessment of the CD. Thus begins a long-distance e-mail flirtation between Annie and Tucker Crowe.

As is always the case, Hornby's characters, even the lesser ones, are all very well-drawn, and the story is very engaging and often hilarious. It will appeal to practically anyone who has enjoyed Hornby's previous books, to people who love music and musicians perhaps a bit too obsessively, and to the significant others who find themselves in relationships with such people.
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Oct 13, 2010

Patrick rated it

Shelves: books-read-in-2010

It’s funny, writing a review of this book, because in many ways, I’m Duncan, the obsessed fan who puts the book’s plot into motion. Nick Hornby is something of a hero of mine. I read a lot as a kid, but sort of got away from it as I got older, as it seems so many people do these days. But then I read ‘High Fidelity’ and it’s like something lit up inside me. I immediately devoured everything I could by Hornby (which, at the time, wasn’t much—‘About a Boy’ and ‘Fever Pitch’), and then moved onto a...moreIt’s funny, writing a review of this book, because in many ways, I’m Duncan, the obsessed fan who puts the book’s plot into motion. Nick Hornby is something of a hero of mine. I read a lot as a kid, but sort of got away from it as I got older, as it seems so many people do these days. But then I read ‘High Fidelity’ and it’s like something lit up inside me. I immediately devoured everything I could by Hornby (which, at the time, wasn’t much—‘About a Boy’ and ‘Fever Pitch’), and then moved onto authors that Hornby seemed to admire, most notably Dave Eggers (whose ‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius’ further changed me). When I finally met Mr. Hornby, years later, I was utterly speechless. I wanted to explain—eloquently, of course—the ways in which he’d changed my life. By reading more, writing more, thinking more…I became a more well-rounded person because of him. But how do you fit that into 30 seconds of a book signing? And do you even want to? It’s never good to meet your heroes—either they end up disappointing you, or you end up disappointing them. But that knowledge doesn’t put to rest the urge to tell them everything they mean to you.

So I’m well-aware that the character of Duncan is a critique of Hornby’s own basest impulses—as an avid music-lover, he’s no doubt been in the position of the crazed fan more than once in his day--but I’m also keenly aware that it is a critique of people like me as well—the once great fans of Hornby who now come onto the internet to poke holes in their hero’s continued quest to make a living. It’s a little turnabout as fair play—how can you criticize this book without sounding like the snivel-y, whining fanboy who is the book’s biggest joke?

But I really don’t have any great criticisms of this book. It’s been said that Nick Hornby is ‘chick-lit for men.’ And I think there is some truth to that. He’s certainly not Salman Rushdie or Upton Sinclair, writing about controversial topics aimed to bring about greater good for society. He’s simply a perceptive guy who has a talent for picking up on the little quirks that make life and pop-culture so interesting. And that’s all I really want from his books—I like smiling in recognition at my own quirks and flaws, and those of the world around me. Hornby’s world—Atlantic Ocean dividing them aside—is the world I inhabit. And I appreciate being surrounded by like-minded people, even if it’s only on a page.

The greatest of these little truths that Hornby revealed in this book was the synthesis of art, and musical art in particular. I once wrote an essay for myself about an ex-girlfriend I had in college. Our relationship was a mess through and through—we were constantly breaking up and getting back together, and cheating on each other and breaking up again…it was a typical college relationship, in other words. And I remember, one summer day, when we were broken up, I was listening to a song that made me think of her. It was a playfully wistful song about longing for a lost love called ‘Maybe in an Alternate Dimension’ by a band called Ozma. And as I listened to this song and sang along, picturing my (ex) girlfriend and I being together again, I smiled. Not because I wanted her back, but because I recognized, even then, the ridiculousness of singing a song of wistful longing for that particular girl. She wasn’t the one. I knew that. She wasn’t worthy of songs of wistful longing. She was just the girl that I was dating then, and that’s all she’d ever be. I had even tried to write a song for her when I still played with my band, but they all came out wrong—angry, resentful. She wasn’t the type of girl who you wrote love songs about.

So that made me think of the original subject of the song, the one who had inspired the singer of Ozma to write the song in the first place. Was she so special? Did she deserve to have a wistful love song written about her, by anyone? Maybe…but I’m willing to bet it wasn’t all peaches and sunshine. Because it never is. Songs—love songs, songs of wistful longing, breakup songs—they all exist in a vacuum. They’re almost never about a real person so much as an idealized version of a real person, or an idealized version of a fucked up relationship. Maybe the singer is singing about how much he loves the girl, and where did he go wrong and all that, but odds are he knew exactly where he went wrong—by sleeping with a groupie in the back of a tour bus. But nobody wants to sing along to that.

And that’s what Tucker Crowe represents in ‘Juliet, Naked.’ He’s an artist who becomes self-aware enough to realize what a fraud he is. He sees hundreds of people singing along to songs he wrote about a girl he really didn’t even like all that much, and it’s too much for him. I don’t know that any rock star would really feel that way, but it’s certainly how we’d like to see them, and that’s why Nick Hornby is so great. He just gets it. He gets me, even though we’ve only had one awkward, stilted 30 second conversation. And you could make the argument that maybe this book tied together a little too nicely, and you could maybe nitpick that some of the characters were thinly sketched. But I don’t care. I enjoyed the heck out of it. So you can say what you want about this book, or Nick Hornby as an author, but I love his books, and this was his best in a while. He just gets it. He really does.
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Jul 01, 2010

Eva rated it

"They had flown from England to Minneapolis to look at a toilet. The simple truth of this only struck Annie when they were inside it: apart from the graffiti on the walls, some of which made some kind of reference to the toilet's importance in musical history, it was dank, dark, smelly, and entirely unremarkable. Americans were very good at making the most of their heritage, but there wasn't much even they could do here."

Annie has spent the last 15 years of her life with D...more

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Oct 19, 2011

Billfrog rated it

I'd give this a five star rating but I'm trying to reduce my grade inflation and there isn't a 4.5 star rating option.

What do you do when you come out of a long relationship at the tail end of your breeding years? How do you find purpose in your life as you decouple and age? How do you appreciate and value your past if your future is not on the same track? how much does a person's identity stem from what they like? How much from what they accomplish?

I'd like this book ...more

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May 20, 2010

Donna Radcliff rated it

When I started this book, I didn't really didn't care for it, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish it. Then, somewhere close to the middle, I suddenly realized I really liked Juliet, Naked. I don't know how it happened, but there you go. The three main characters are Annie, a young woman closing in on forty who gave up 15 (and her most fertile)years to Duncan whom she never was really all that in love with anyway. Duncan is a rather boring, nerdy professor and an obsessive devotee to ...more

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Apr 02, 2010

Wendy rated it

I picked this up at the library on a whim and am really enjoying it. I cannot put it down. Its an unusual story line, very much in tune with today's reality of internet, people's undying curiosity with celebrities and a love story.

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Nov 27, 2010

Todd Huish rated it

I love Hornby's characterizations. I'm going to stop short of calling his characters real, because, really, they've all got some pretty unrealistic and fantastical traits. That being said they all read as very believable.

If you're a fan of any of his other books this one will feel very familiar. I feel a little let down by the ending because it feels unfinished...but I think that was what he intended. It's just that after getting invested in the character's quiet, semi-sad, borderlin...more

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Jan 19, 2011

Stephanie rated it

Shelves: all-time-favorites

Being someone who is wrapped up in music quite a bit. This book gave me some comfort. It was funny and at other times sad. I do follow someone the way that Tucker is followed in the story and it has given me an new insight into someone who is famous and some of the trials that they go through.

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Aug 06, 2011

Gary Lang added it

I read every word that Nick Hornby publishes. This book is a sketch for a film, there’s no question about it. I wonder who will play Tucker Crowe, the Dylan-like figure portrayed in this novel. While reading it, I had Hugh Grant in my mind, but he’s already been used for a Hornby character like this in “About a Boy”. If you're read "About a Boy", this book has a very similar feel to it.

If you’re aware of the history of “Blood on the Tracks”, the back-story of this book will make sense....more

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Feb 05, 2010

Lizzy added it

This review was written by John Valentine and posted by Lizzy Mottern.

Fifteen years ago, pre-internet and pre-gossipblogs, Nick Hornby’s breakout book High Fidelity nailed the record store nerd/vinyl junkie scene. I loved the book, I loved the movie. How couldn’t I? I have crates of LP’s, coveted bootlegs, picture sleeve 45’s and fanzines, too.

Juliet, Naked might be called a reflective follow-up. Peopled by reflective songwriters, know-it-all-bloggers, and aging boomer ro...more

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Feb 06, 2012

Ben Dutton rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I wrote a novel a few years back – The Inheritance of Things Past – and as I read pages of it out at a creative writing seminar at university, I was told I was very Hornby-esque. I know Hornby’s work – I had seen the films of Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and High Fidelity and recently saw An Education, for which he wrote the screenplay – and yet I had never read him. When Juliet, Naked, his sixth novel was published in 2009 I read the reviews and felt I could see where those comments in that creati...moreI wrote a novel a few years back – The Inheritance of Things Past – and as I read pages of it out at a creative writing seminar at university, I was told I was very Hornby-esque. I know Hornby’s work – I had seen the films of Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and High Fidelity and recently saw An Education, for which he wrote the screenplay – and yet I had never read him. When Juliet, Naked, his sixth novel was published in 2009 I read the reviews and felt I could see where those comments in that creative writing class had come from. To have even a miniscule amount of the success Hornby has had with his fiction for my own, well it would be an honour. For that first novel of mine, I accept the Hornby comparison, for reading Juliet, Naked, I could sense the familiar, though my later fiction is most definitely not Hornby-esque.

Juliet, Naked then. Annie and Duncan live in the town of Gooleness – a town whose name instantly conjures images of the drab seaside towns of the north – where their lives move towards nothing, and Duncan continues with his obsession with an obscure, now forgotten musician, who released one great album, Juliet. Meanwhile, this obscure rocker, Tucker Crowe, is finding his own relationship failing. When an acoustic version of his most famous album is released, and Duncan raves about it online, a confluence of events brings the lives of these three improbables into contact.

Juliet, Naked is familiar – its set up, its delivery – there is nothing truly sophisticated here (though that is not a criticism), for the success of the book is in what Hornby does with the material. From what I can tell, Hornby is the master of the unexpected – his narratives never quite end up where you think they should be going. We know Tucker, for instance, will end up in Gooleness, and that he will share Annie’s bed – but the sequence of events that lead to it are surprising – as are the consequences of the decisions these people make.

Hornby’s tone is always light, conversational, and he invests his characters – and indeed their world, for Gooleness is precisely right, down to its museum with a dead shark eye – with enough pathos and warmth for us to care. It is often witty, sometimes the dark creeps in at the edges, but it never stays and in a world where two aged music fans are considered celebrities, entirely true. I don’t think there is a higher compliment I can pay Hornby’s work than that.(less)

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Oct 25, 2011

Jessica Snell rated it

I just finished reading Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (you might know him as the author of About a Boy), and there are a few passages I'm still thinking about. One is the thoughts of Duncan, a rather miserable bloke, after he's just cheated on his girlfriend of fifteen years. It strikes me as summing up the problems inherent in living together without vows:

"Duncan was sweating, and his heart was racing. He felt sick. Fifteen years! Or more, even! Was it really possible simply to ...moreI just finished reading Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (you might know him as the author of About a Boy), and there are a few passages I'm still thinking about. One is the thoughts of Duncan, a rather miserable bloke, after he's just cheated on his girlfriend of fifteen years. It strikes me as summing up the problems inherent in living together without vows:

"Duncan was sweating, and his heart was racing. He felt sick. Fifteen years! Or more, even! Was it really possible simply to jump from the belly of a fifteen-year relationship into the clear blue sky? Was it allowed? Or would he and Annie be made to attend courses, to see counselors, to go away together for a year or two and explore what had gone wrong? But who would make them? Nobody, that's who. And there was alarmingly little tying him down. He was one of the first people to complain about the increasing encroachment of the state into personal lives, but, actually, shouldn't there be a little more encroachment, when it came to things like this? Where was the protective fence, or the safety net? They made it hard for you to jump off bridges, or to smoke, to own a gun, to become a gynecologist. So how come they let you walk out on a stable, functioning relationship? They shouldn't. If this didn't work out, he could see himself become a homeless, jobless alcoholic within a year. And that would be worse for his health than a pack of Marlboros."

It also illustrates the weirdness of living in a society that legislates everything except morality.

Gosh, Hornby is good. He gets something like that in without seams in the story, with beautiful humor - funny and insightful, just great writing, that.

The other part I'm still thinking about are the thoughts of Tucker Crowe, an artist who was famous once but hasn't written any new songs in about twenty years. He's thinking about why that is, and you get this lovely piece of prose:

"The truth about autobiographical songs, he realized, was that you had to make the present become the past, somehow: you had to take a feeling or a friend or a woman and turn whatever it was into something that was over, so that you could be definitive about it. You had to put it in a glass case and look at it and think about it until it gave up its meaning, and he'd managed to do that with just about everybody he'd ever met or married or fathered. the truth about life was that nothing ever ended until you died, and even then you just left a whole bunch of unresolved narratives behind you. He'd somehow managed to retain the mental habits of a songwriter long after he'd stopped writing songs, and perhaps it was time to give them up."

That image of taking everything and putting it into a glass case and looking at it and thinking about it till it gives up its meaning . . . I'm going to be haunted by that image for a long time I think. Feel familiar to anyone else?

Three cheers for Nick Hornby!(less)

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Oct 21, 2011

Peter Schulman rated it

I'm getting so frustrated being limited to using integers to rate books. This wasn't a 4, but it was much closer to that than a 3. Almost every time I rate I want to go between the numbers.

I enjoyed this one. For most of the story it moved kind of slowly, but the bonus from that was the opportunity to know what the characters were thinking and that was a big bonus. Everybody is filled with self doubt, but these people took it to a level that gave me another opportunity to ponder what m...more

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Oct 05, 2011

Mat Brewster rated it

Shelves: own

Hornby returns to his roots - musical obsession. He writes characters who are completely consumed by music like no one else around. He knows those people - people like me - probably because he is one. In the first half of the book he gets all sorts of wonderful details exactly write within his obsessed creation, Duncan. The character is completely consumed by a musician who pulled an Axl Rose - just disappeared off the musical landscape. Duncan spends his time on the internet talking with other...more

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Sep 18, 2011

R. rated it

· review of another edition

Connaissez-vous Tucker Crowe ? Non ? Pourtant, une page de l'encyclopédie Wikipedia reproduite dans le livre lui est consacrée. Je vais essayer d'en résumer les principaux éléments.
Tucker Crowe est un chanteur, compositeur et guitariste américain. Sa musique rock l'a rendu célèbre dans les années 80. L'album considéré comme son chef-d'oeuvre est Juliet dont les chansons sont inspirées de sa rupture avec Julie Beatty. Durant la tournée de promotion de l'album, il a subitement disparu de la ...more

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Sep 12, 2011

William Young rated it

A fine novel, much better than his previous two, but not up to his earlier works, High Fidelity or About a Boy. It's the story of a couple of people who have a odd fascination with a retired, reclusive rock'n'roller who quit making music in the 80s, leaving only a couple of albums in his wake. Why there would be anybody so intensely interested in an artist is a mystery to me that was never satisfactorily worked out in the novel, but I suppose there are people out there with similar preoccupation...moreA fine novel, much better than his previous two, but not up to his earlier works, High Fidelity or About a Boy. It's the story of a couple of people who have a odd fascination with a retired, reclusive rock'n'roller who quit making music in the 80s, leaving only a couple of albums in his wake. Why there would be anybody so intensely interested in an artist is a mystery to me that was never satisfactorily worked out in the novel, but I suppose there are people out there with similar preoccupations.

The main couple is a strange-to-me version of a couple that has settled into a predictable routine in their life until the relationship comes apart over, oddly, the release of Juliet, Naked, a stripped version of the rocker's - Tucker Crowe - album, Juliet. I had trouble believing this would be enough to split a couple, but, well, I've been in relationships where something equally trivial was the final straw.

And then Crowe contacts the woman - Annie - and starts an email dialogue with her after she posts a negative review of the album on a fan website moderated by her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend/ex-boyfriend. Crowe agrees with her, and the two correspond and get to know each other. Along the way, you get some sort of backstory on Crowe, why he quit playing/making music and what he'd spent the last 30 years doing instead. The story cruises along on autopilot, for the most part, delivering some set piece scenes, flirting with becoming obvious at points before settling down into a nice rhythm that hits all the plot points you were waiting for, wondering how they would be turned in, and then dumps you out at the end with a realistic ending that is neither satisfying nor unsatisfying. Just there.

If anything, the story felt like it needed another fifty pages of character development because I felt like I never really got to get a good feel for the "who" of any of the characters, and, to be fair, there's an awful lot of description about the people, their motivations and their relationships to one another. But it just felt off, short, shallow, not quite all there. I don't know if novels are supposed to leave you wanting for more, but this one did, if only because you wanted to know that extra little bit before shutting the book and shelving it in the Hornby section.
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Aug 01, 2011

Jen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography, british, humor, romantic, music, audio-book

I was a little worried, in the beginning, that this story was going to be entirely about a really unhappy couple who wasted 15 years of their lives being together. I started asking myself the usual questions. In Hornby novels, are the couples actually ever happy? Has Nick Hornby never been in love? Why are all the guys always SO DOUCHEY? I understand flawed characters, but his are often just plain unlikeable. But then, Jackson showed up, the ultimate comic relief. Whew. I am still asking those q...more

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Jul 30, 2011

Rebecca rated it

Shelves: chicklit

Yay Hornby! He has to be one of my favorite consistent authors. The only book that I had read of his that I didn't like too much was the one where there was a women protag for all of it. I don't know, the book was weird and he wasn't good writing from a women's point of view. In this book, he switches back and forth from a women to a man and it works better. Said Women is dating some guy in the UK who is like obsessed with some recluse singer whose fame died away 20 years ago. Someone sends him ...more

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Jul 26, 2011

Stuart added it

I really liked this story. Nick Hornby is famous as the author of About a Boy, High Fidelity and Fever Pitch, all of which I have enjoyed as films rather than books. This book is in the same vein of sympathetically and humorously looking at his characters as they move through the story, with a background of modern musical appreciation (by modern I mean late twentieth century, mostly, including a diversion into Northern Soul). The story involves a couple, Annie and Duncan, who have been together...more

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Jul 16, 2011

Claire rated it

"How had she ever managed to read or see or listen to anything and come to the right conclusion about its merits? Was it all just luck? Or was it just the boring good taste of the Sunday newspaper supplements? So she like The Sorpranos - well, who didn't? (page 68)."

"It made sense at the time, but the rabbit died after two days, and now Jackson talked about his dead rabbit all the time. It was true, however, that he seemed slight more phlegmatic about the of Tucker...more

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Jun 09, 2011

Jeruen Dery rated it

Sometimes, good books don’t need to make use of complicated characters tackling complicated and extraordinary issues. Sometimes, good books can be told just by using regular characters that seem normal.

See, there are books that sometimes has bizarrely extraordinary characters, such as princes and princesses, royalty and nobility, people who have powers, and all those other things. But the thing about this book is that it never tries to put itself higher than the reader, the average ord...moreSometimes, good books don’t need to make use of complicated characters tackling complicated and extraordinary issues. Sometimes, good books can be told just by using regular characters that seem normal.

See, there are books that sometimes has bizarrely extraordinary characters, such as princes and princesses, royalty and nobility, people who have powers, and all those other things. But the thing about this book is that it never tries to put itself higher than the reader, the average ordinary reader. But before I discuss how I think that that is indeed the case, let me tell you what the book is about first.

The book narrates the story from two angles: the angle of Annie and Duncan, who are a couple from England; and the angle of Tucker Crowe, who is a former rockstar who just disappeared into oblivion some decades ago. Tucker has a small set of followers, trying to decipher the puzzle of Tucker’s disappearance from public view, even having a website and all that discussing all possible Tucker sightings, re-analysis of Tucker’s lyrics, and arranging pilgrimages to Tucker-specific locations, such as a toilet in a Minneapolis bar, the house of Tucker’s former girlfriend, a house in Montana, and such. These people are called Crowologists, but in reality, they are just fanatics. Duncan is one such person.

The book starts when Duncan and Annie from England decide to make a trip to the United States, in order to make a pilgrimage to Tucker Crowe sights. Annie just tags along to Duncan, but somewhere in the middle, she decides to bail out and see San Francisco instead, instead of stalking some lady’s house. That starts the drift between Duncan and Annie, which eventually results in their break-up, but after Duncan has an affair with a colleague.

Tucker on the other hand is now a middle-aged father, father of several kids with different mothers, but he hangs out with just one of them, Jackson. He has unresolved family issues with all of his kids, and he really isn’t the poster dad that one would expect to be. The main conflict revolving around Tucker is his lack of direction, and how his family members are dissatisfied with him.

Now how do the two sides collide? Well, the title of the novel is in reference to an album of Tucker that just came out, after several years. The novel tells about Tucker’s last album entitled Juliet, and several years later, a collection of songs, that were basically the same songs from the last album, but rather premature, came out. This was called Juliet, Naked. Now, the Crowologists loved it badly, to a certain presumptuous degree, that I was rather annoyed. I especially was annoyed at Duncan for being so obtuse, narrow-minded, and haughty. Duncan listened to it, and then wrote a review praising the work. Annie on the other hand listened to it, and didn’t like it. She also wrote a review, but Duncan doesn’t respect her opinion because he thinks that she isn’t an expert Crowologist just yet, so what does she know about the matter? Anyway, they drift away, and the break-up happens later, but in the meantime, the real Tucker Crowe writes Annie an email, thanking her for her opnion. This gets things between them going.

Anyway, I won’t really give the details here, but the rest of the book tackles both the issues of Annie, who now feels like she wasted her whole life with a good-for-nothing person in Duncan; and Tucker, who is locked in a tangle of half-brothers and half-sisters and unknown children. It is not as much as a romantic story between Annie and Tucker, but more of a realistic picture of real people tackling real issues.

Now at this point, my readers might be already thinking that I have a favorable impression of the novel. In fact I do, I like the novel. I like the fact that Hornby tried to be in touch with the general populace. There were Wikipedia entries, email correspondence, lots of references to pop culture, all these attempts to ground it within the reality of the common reader. It wasn’t something that one had to have either a sophisticated imagination or a scientific mind in order to properly process it. Granted, it was not Umberto Eco, but it still made justice portraying real situations of real people, and that was what I liked.

Overall, it was a relatively easy read. I liked the mixture of correspondence, encyclopedia entries, blog entries, among others interspersed with the narrative. I definitely recommend this to someone wanting a fresh take at contemporary fiction, as this is perhaps one of the most down-to-earth novels that I have read in the recent past. 4 and a half out of 5 stars.(less)

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Jun 09, 2011

Devon rated it

"That seemed like an ambition, of sorts: to get to a stage where she wanted to hang herself because putting a T-shirt on a child's bed seemed indicative of the slow and painful death of the spirit. At the moment, she wanted to hang herself because it seemed like the first tiny glimmers of a rebirth." (pg. 376)

As I was perusing the book stands last weekend, I stumbled upon Nick Hornby's latest novel, Juliet Naked. An avid High Fidelity fan (both the book and the movie), I...more"That seemed like an ambition, of sorts: to get to a stage where she wanted to hang herself because putting a T-shirt on a child's bed seemed indicative of the slow and painful death of the spirit. At the moment, she wanted to hang herself because it seemed like the first tiny glimmers of a rebirth." (pg. 376)

As I was perusing the book stands last weekend, I stumbled upon Nick Hornby's latest novel, Juliet Naked. An avid High Fidelity fan (both the book and the movie), I was eager to pick up Hornby's new book and devour it immediately.

Juliet, Naked is so essential Hornby that you could pick it up with the author's name scrubbed out and still know it was him. His writing is straightforward, thoughtful, and easy. But isn't easy to be confused with lack of depth, because in his easy writing comes alive three characters fleshed out to their basest level, giving readers a look into the lives of very different people with one thing in common: Tucker Crowe.

Tucker Crowe is the focal point of the book. Crowe is a former 80's rock star with a cult following due to his twenty-year disappearance. As with many Hornby novels, he describes Crowe's music, lyrics, and sound with such authenticity that you start to believe that Crowe was an actual musician, with Hornby writing the biography. I'm continually amazed with Hornby's ability to stay within a particular few genres of music from book to book and still maintain a level of curiosity in his characters. It's almost sad that there wasn't a soundtrack to go along with this of Crowe's music.

The essence of a good book, to me, is the internal struggle that a character feels. However, the genius comes in when the author doesn't make it hard to see into that while at the same time not dumbing anything down. Hornby is a master at this, especially one-liners that are so basic but are packed with pounds of meaning. A cousin of this are his statements of profound insight, presented in a non-pretentious and warm way:

"But then that's what art is, sometimes, he always felt: something that confers advantages" (pg. 347-348).

Hornby's English wit comes across like a siren on a fire truck, but is also masterful in his American comedy, making the transition between the two seamless and natural. And, as he is known, he can portray the thoughts and actions of a child in some of the most realistic situations, providing a wonderfully realistic landscape for relationships with all the supporting roles.

Overall it's a great read for fans of Hornby's writing. I hate to think this, but unfortunately some of his writing may be seen as overdramatic and pompous if you don't view music as a vehicle for change or a heavy instrument producing significant life lessons. What I'm saying is that you have to love music to appreciate his writing, plain and simple.

Pick it up if you can. It's a quick read at 406 pages and I finished in about three days.(less)

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May 20, 2011

Cyndy Aleo rated it

Shelves: upmarket

Somehow or other, I've managed to never read a Nick Hornby novel before Juliet, Naked. Now I'm scared to go back and read his older works in case I don't like them as much.

::: The Plot :::

Annie is an English museum curator in a small, seaside town in England. For the past fifteen years, she's been involved with Duncan, a university professor obsessed with the music and career of Tucker Crowe, an American singer-songwriter who inexplicably walked away from his music career som...moreSomehow or other, I've managed to never read a Nick Hornby novel before Juliet, Naked. Now I'm scared to go back and read his older works in case I don't like them as much.

::: The Plot :::

Annie is an English museum curator in a small, seaside town in England. For the past fifteen years, she's been involved with Duncan, a university professor obsessed with the music and career of Tucker Crowe, an American singer-songwriter who inexplicably walked away from his music career some twenty years ago.

As Duncan's obsession goes beyond the web site he runs to a trip across America visiting rumored locations of pivotal moments in Crowe's life, his relationship with Annie starts to unravel without either of them realizing it, culminating in a break-up seemingly put in motion by the release of an acoustic demo version of Crowe's most famous album, "Juliet." Both Duncan and Annie post their reactions to the album online, but Annie's nets a response from the reclusive artist himself.

::: Funny Yet Heartbreaking :::

Juliet, Naked is both hilarious and a tear-jerker. Tucker's character is totally believable as a former musician; the type you obsessed about back in your younger days and always wondered what happened to after his big moment in the sun. He has a very jaded way of looking at where he ended up, and the reader is just as amused as he is about the misconceptions that result from the small but rabid fanbase he has left. Anyone who has been involved in an online fan community will be in stitches laughing at some of Duncan's interactions with fellow fans, and the way things are blown out of proportion and overanalyzed to the point of insanity.

Tucker's trail of ex-wives and estranged children is just as painful as Annie's childlessness, and the two seem like broken pieces of the same china pattern, both thinking they are too damaged and past their prime to be of any value. Both feel that they allowed time to sweep away the primes of their lives while they were doing nothing of any importance. The ending leaves the reader guessing, but it also allows you to come up with your own ending for Annie and Tucker.

This review originally published on Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Book_Juli...(less)

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May 11, 2011

Stella rated it

I read this book for my first time in 2011, and after having watched Crazy Heart, I kept waiting for Tucker Crowe to say something Bad Blake-ish, more specifically I wanted him to tell Annie "I want to talk about how bad you make this room look." Can we please get this book turned into a move starring Jeff Bridges soon? I digress... I enjoyed this book more than I did About A Boy because the character's emotions, thougths and feelings were described more deeply and painfully honestly. ...more

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Mar 12, 2011

Greg Zimmerman rated it

For a light, breezy book, Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby sure deals with some pretty heady questions: Can bad people create good art? (Sure!) If so, is that art lessened if it is disingenuously inspired? (Um, maybe?) And from the fan perspective, at what point does obsession so cannibalize appreciation, that the fan can no longer assess art objectively? (A good hint is the point you lose your 15-year relationship over your obsession...)

But as interesting as these questions are to think a...moreFor a light, breezy book, Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby sure deals with some pretty heady questions: Can bad people create good art? (Sure!) If so, is that art lessened if it is disingenuously inspired? (Um, maybe?) And from the fan perspective, at what point does obsession so cannibalize appreciation, that the fan can no longer assess art objectively? (A good hint is the point you lose your 15-year relationship over your obsession...)

But as interesting as these questions are to think about, the plot that frames those questions in this novel sort of falls flat. The characters are real and fully developed (if not entirely likable) and the writing is excellent. So, what's the problem?

Let's look at the characters first: Tucker Crowe is a formerly famous American singer-songwriter who hasn't recorded since his masterpiece album Juliet more than 20 years ago. Now, as a 55-year-old do-nothing, he's slowly destroying his third marriage and beginning to regret the path his life has taken.

On the other side of the pond, in a small English seaside town, Annie and Duncan are immersed in a 15-year, childless, largely loveless relationship of convenience. Duncan loves Juliet, is obsessed with Tucker Crowe and spends all his free time moderating a Website dedicated to "Crowology." He's your typical Internet message board nerd — spending thousands of words discussing every word, phrase and note of Crowe's music, and spending hours speculating about where Crowe is now and whether he might make a comeback.

Annie also loves Juliet as a passionate, beautiful piece of music, but doesn't nearly share Duncan's obsession for the musician. She's also beginning to realize she may have wasted the last 15 years of her life with him. The spark for the novel is when a PR person sends Duncan a "new" Crowe record titled Juliet, Naked — a stripped down version of the classic Juliet. Duncan's and Annie's opinions vary widely on the new version, which creates more than a little strife in their already failing relationship. On the Website, Duncan posts a 3,000-word gush-fest while Annie posts a less-than-favorable review. Out of the blue, Tucker emails Annie to praise her for her honesty. This touches off a flirty and brutally honest e-mail conversation between the two, and lays the groundwork for the rest of the novel.

So, why doesn't the plotting succeed? Part of the reason is that the interesting meditations on music and regret are vastly overshadowed by the banal. The book spends entirely too much time following Tucker's day-to-day life as a stay-at-home dad and chronicling Annie's attempts to arrange a museum exhibit in her home town, among other things. These aside, there just seems to be a tinge of inevitability throughout the entire plot — like the characters were extensively developed, but then simply dropped into a pre-built plot structure so rigid there's no chance for the unexpected. It seems all the choices Hornby makes regarding the plot are the too-safe ones — that is until the ending, in which one character finally does something so OUT of character, it's laughable and totally silly. But, perhaps I've said too much...

This was my first foray into Hornby's work. I absolutely love the movie High Fidelity, based on a Hornby novel, and I love novels about music, so I had really high hopes for Juliet, Naked. But while I wasn't a fan of this one, I will say that Hornby's writing and characterization was definitely intriguing enough that I'll try one of his other, hopefully better-plotted, books. (less)

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Dec 30, 2010

Kristin rated it

A tremendous waste of time.
Granted, there were some funny parts and Nick Hornby creates some characters with unique voices. Only I didn't care for Annie, Duncan, or Tucker. Their unique selves can die now for all I care. Tucker can care for his annoying son all he can (his one semi-redeeming quality), and I'll still prefer his timely demise over any dramatic discovery of inner peace.
I'm sorry, I don't believe even the power of one night of sex can solve problems you've had for more t...moreA tremendous waste of time.
Granted, there were some funny parts and Nick Hornby creates some characters with unique voices. Only I didn't care for Annie, Duncan, or Tucker. Their unique selves can die now for all I care. Tucker can care for his annoying son all he can (his one semi-redeeming quality), and I'll still prefer his timely demise over any dramatic discovery of inner peace.
I'm sorry, I don't believe even the power of one night of sex can solve problems you've had for more than ten years. The ending was so abrupt- after sex and saying goodbye forever, Annie decides to move to the US and Tucker writes peaceful songs. FIN!
I was like "what the fuck did I just read." I don't really care if the characters have unique voices or if the author has "subtle humor" when the plot is this bs. All three main characters are unlikeable people with multitudes of problems. I hope I'm not the only one who thought it would be much easier to read about their deaths than being bombarded with their unsolvable problems. Seriously, Tucker was so messed up I couldn't even muster up one "aww." More like "why the hell is this book focused around such a useless piece of shit?" Who the hell wastes time trying to fix someone like him up? Even the author couldn't patch him up.
Annie fucks him, he breaks a 20-year silence and writes songs about picnics. This ending alludes to none of his problems being solved (since his sole function is to be a waste of space), except that maybe he is a slightly different man. Who cares?
Annie is empowered to move to the US after sex. You read pages of her girly thoughts and insecurities and then her awkward conversation in which she asks Tucker if they can have sex together. I was literally shaking my head, hoping he'll say no. I forget- he impregnated 3 or 4 wives before Annie. My bad. I hate these characters lol. Well anyway, you read pages and pages of her idiotic thoughts (she thinks like a 20-yr old dumbass instead of a 40-yr old dumbass) and then she has sex and her whole life changes dramatically. Woot.
This book sucks, but can function as a compilation of sad lives. A reference book if you will. Read it if you want to know what three pathetic, unlikeable people are like, then make an effort to never end up like them.(less)

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Dec 30, 2010

Emma rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I didn’t want to buy this book. I didn’t want to turn into the Hornby geek, plus I enjoyed 'The Polysyllabic Spree' so much where he speaks as himself that I thought I couldn’t possibly enjoy this one as much. I got it just to make the most of a buy-one-get-one-free deal. But wow, I’m glad I did.

One word to describe it: addictive. I’m not sure I can even pick out why, I’m not that good a reviewer! I just found myself needing to read it and continue through the story at any moment I w...moreI didn’t want to buy this book. I didn’t want to turn into the Hornby geek, plus I enjoyed 'The Polysyllabic Spree' so much where he speaks as himself that I thought I couldn’t possibly enjoy this one as much. I got it just to make the most of a buy-one-get-one-free deal. But wow, I’m glad I did.

One word to describe it: addictive. I’m not sure I can even pick out why, I’m not that good a reviewer! I just found myself needing to read it and continue through the story at any moment I wasn’t working, sleeping or eating. Although given the choice I’d probably have tried to do it during these times as well. I can’t remember the last time I was so eager to read, perhaps during Harry Potter. But I love that feeling, and I’m so happy I got the feel it again, but it has spoilt me because I can’t wait to find my next one. It has partly ruined my next book ('The Girl On The Landing') because I’m not as into it as the wonderful Rowling/Hornby duo..

But anyway, the story grabbed me and the relationship between Duncan and Annie just fascinated me. Frankly, the Tucker parts I didn’t love, but I was absolutely desperate to see what happened when Duncan would find out about Tucker and Annie, and I think that was the moment I was most excited about. It wasn’t as exciting as I hoped, but it did at least happen. With Hornby’s books I always have the moment of panic rise in me when I remember that his books can be quite depressing and realistic, and that the meeting of Tucker might not happen, or that the pair will hate each other. Thankfully he resisted that urge this time, and the book really was quite optimistic even if it was reasonably realistic too; a good mix I think. I don’t mind a book being a bit sad or depressing, as long as it has a moment or two that is uplifting, and if that’s near the end, even better. So, gold star for that, and another for doing it when I didn’t expect it. Totally enjoyable, and actually, reading his column and learning what he’s like and his interests actually enhanced the reading – It was like another level of understanding. I knew that Tucker liked Dickens because Hornby likes Dickens, I understood when he was being subtly funny because I understand his sense of humour, and I get that he knows his way around music and UK and USA like a normal person. Yes, turns out I am a Hornby nerd.(less)

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About Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is the author of the novels A Long Way Down, Slam, How to Be Good, High Fidelity, and About a Boy, and the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, Shakespeare Wrote for Money, and The Polysyllabic Spree, as well as the editor of the short-story collection Speaking with the Angel. He is a recipient of the American Aca...more

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“For the best part of 40 years she had genuinely believed that not doing things would somehow prevent regret, when, of course, the exact opposite was true.” — 29 people liked it

“The truth about life was that nothing ever ended until you died, and even then you just left a whole bunch of unresolved narratives behind you.” — 23 people liked it

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