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 D...
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reviews
May 21, 2010
Kim
rated it: 
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...
So, Nick Hornby is one of my revered authors. He’s a downright O-M-G in More...
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(40 people liked it)
Sep 13, 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.
4 comments
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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
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16 comments
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(13 people liked it)
Jul 30, 2011
James
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 More...
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 More...
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(9 people liked it)
Nov 05, 2010
Patrick
rated it:
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
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(14 people liked it)
Jan 29, 2012
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...
Annie has spent the last 15 years of her life with D More...
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(1 person liked it)
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...
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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(1 person liked it)
May 21, 2010
Donna
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
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(4 people liked it)
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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(1 person liked it)
Nov 27, 2010
Todd
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...
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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(2 people liked it)
Jan 19, 2011
Stephanie
rated it:
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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(1 person liked it)
Aug 06, 2011
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...
If you’re aware of the history of “Blood on the Tracks”, the back-story of this book will make sense. More...
Feb 05, 2010
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...
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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(3 people liked it)
Feb 06, 2012
Ben
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Oct 25, 2011
Jessica
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 More...
"Duncan was sweating, and his heart was racing. He felt sick. Fifteen years! Or more, even! Was it really possible simply to More...
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 21, 2011
Peter
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...
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...
Oct 05, 2011
Mat
rated it:
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
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Sep 18, 2011
R.
rated it:
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...
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...
Sep 12, 2011
William
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
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Aug 01, 2011
Jen
rated it:
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
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Jul 30, 2011
Rebecca
rated it:
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
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Jul 26, 2011
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
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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...
Jun 09, 2011
Jeruen
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 More...
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 More...
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...
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...
May 20, 2011
Cyndy
rated it:
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 More...
::: 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 More...
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.
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Mar 12, 2011
Greg
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 More...
But as interesting as these questions are to think a More...
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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 More...
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 More...
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(7 people liked it)
Dec 30, 2010
Emma
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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