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Juliet, Naked

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 20,638 ratings · 2,692 reviews

Now in paperback-The New York Times bestselling novel of rock 'n roll, super fandom, and love, by the beloved author of About a Boy and High Fidelity.

Nick Hornby returns to his roots-music and messy relationships-in this funny and touching new novel which thoughtfully and sympathetically looks at how lives can be wasted but how they are never beyond redemption. Annie live...more

Paperback, 406 pages

Published September 7th 2010 by Riverhead Trade (first published September 29th 2009)

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May 21, 2010 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 my little realm of esc...more

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May 04, 2011 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, 2000s

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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Jun 12, 2012 Tony Mac rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first half of this book is Hornby at his best – creating interesting, believable characters and exploring the dynamics of relationships with his usual ear for dialogue and understanding of people’s often highly personal obsessions and motivations.

Surprisingly however, once all the characters are properly introduced and the scenario established, the author seems to lose his way. When the story should be gearing towards a climax with the central characters finally coming together its as if Ho...more

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Nov 23, 2009 Teresa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 Hornby's fun,...more

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Jul 30, 2011 James Thane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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," has devoted much of his...more 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," 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 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more 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 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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Apr 07, 2013 Sandy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book pretty much embodies all of the Things I Love about Hornby's stuff--funny, bleak, well-drawn characters, impeccable sense of setting, tightly plotted, nicely emotionally balanced. I loved the different character perspectives--how one thing, one piece of art, one person--can impact everyone so differently. The characters in this novel are like so many of Hornby's others--abhorrent and yet still relatable, somehow still loveable--so very human.

This book seems to be so much about choice a...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Eva rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"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 Duncan, a man obsessed w...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Billfrog rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 even if I weren't at a pl...more

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May 20, 2010 Donna Radcliff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 Tuck...more

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Apr 02, 2010 Wendy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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, borderline bleak live...more

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Jan 19, 2011 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 · review of another edition

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.

The book i...more

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Feb 05, 2010 Lizzy added it · review of another edition

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 rock stars considering par...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Ryandake rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(this bit of rambling refers to the audiobook version.)

Hornby's work is a puzzle to me--he's funny, he does great characters, his books have some weight to them... and yet, within a few weeks of reading one i invariably forget i've read it.

when i started listening to this book, i had the sneaking suspicion that i had actually read it in print. even after listening all the way through, i still have that feeling. but i can't be certain, because Hornby's works don't stick in my brain.

odd, that...

th...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Stuart Aken rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nick Hornby is one of those writers I hadn’t previously read, for no other reason than that there are so many to choose from these days. I came across Juliet, Naked on a local charity stall and, knowing I’d be in hospital for minor surgery for a day and would therefore be a captive audience, paid the small fee requested. I’d seen the film version of his About A Boy and thought I’d probably find something in his writing to appeal to me.

I’m glad I picked up the book. The ‘Juliet’ of the title is a...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Mark Glover rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having been a fan of Nick Hornby in the past but struggled to get into his last few books, I decided to give this work a go and was pleasantly surprised at a return to form. Nick's first few books(Fever Pitch/Hi Fidelity/About a boy) all had a strong focus as they were essentially about people who lacked focus in their lives and found meaning in their passions or past times. All were flawed characters who you got the feeling never quite engaged with those around them as their only real means of...more Having been a fan of Nick Hornby in the past but struggled to get into his last few books, I decided to give this work a go and was pleasantly surprised at a return to form. Nick's first few books(Fever Pitch/Hi Fidelity/About a boy) all had a strong focus as they were essentially about people who lacked focus in their lives and found meaning in their passions or past times. All were flawed characters who you got the feeling never quite engaged with those around them as their only real means of identifying with the world around them was though music or football or popular culture. As someone who perhaps shared a lot of these traits, I found the characters engaging and believable as did many others who saw these books as finally giving voice to their life experience. After these first books though the author seemed to switch focus a little with the subsequent novels(How to Be Good/A Long Way Down)looking more at how we engage with society and each other in a way kind of offering a solution to the agonies of the protagonists in the first three novels other than the stock standard love conquers all solution he had offered up before. While these books focussed on deeper themes, the execution seemed to fall flat in comparison to his earlier novels, perhaps because Nick the author was equally coming to terms with similar ideas himself and had not quite grasped them in the same way he had with the earlier novels.
And so onto Juliet Naked, here is the novel that seemingly bridges the two worlds we not only get Duncan a music obssesive who seemingly fell out of the pages of Hi Fidelity, but also Annie who perhaps is a more sympathetic version of the put upon narrator in How To Be Good, combined with the reclusive rock star Tucker Crowe, who oddly comes across as the least believable character. The book works because it offers a more adult response to Duncan(who after all is an amalgum of characters from the earlier novels)in Annie and her at times difficult journey to find her own fulfilment. In a way I guess Hornby suggest's (as he did in his earlier novels) that the obessesiveness of these chharacters is in some way to make up for the lack of fulfilment in other parts of their life and for the most part in terms of the characters this reads as a true statement. The only real problem I find is in Annie's response while it is definitely an improvement on the earlier 'love will conquer all' solution's offered up by his earlier works, Hornby perhaps fails to acknowledge that she herself might be flawed. After all it is not as if Duncan rail roaded her into accepting his obsessions and you can't help but feel that she could easily have stepped away at any point or pursued her own passions. Instead we get her destroying his mythology while at the same time(again) coming up with the same 'love is the answer' solution to the problem, though in this case it is her relationship with Tucker(probably not the greatest choice since he has a veritable stirng of broken relationships behind him)which provides her final contentment. While it is a step up from the outcomes offered in earlier novels, it doesn't sit easily and you feel as if all you are getting is a different interpretation of the same óne size fits all'solution. I like that Hornby has tried to balance the 'boys toys' world of his earlier works with the realism of the preceding novels and you get the feeling that this could have been a truly great novel had he succeeded in what he clearly set out to do. That said it is an enjoyable read, humorous and well balanced in terms of its narration. I hope that this is indeed the return to form many have longed to see from this author. He is after all a great chronicler of the obsessions and realities of modern day living and you get the feeling that if he manages to pull off what he aspires to he could be regarded as an even greater writer.(less)

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Feb 13, 2013 Christophe Ang rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was pretty good. Not Nick Hornby's best, but still no too bad. The book is about a woman, Annie, who finds herself in a relationship with an obsessed man, Duncan, with Tucker Crowe, a musical artist who has disappeared for nearly an entire decade. In typical Nick Hornby novels, the relationship off course breaks off, and Annie starts discovering more and more about herself. The title "Juliet, Naked", interestingly, enough, does not come from any obscenities or such related to the book,...more

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Jan 27, 2013 Thomas Schreier rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wonderful book, that I bought at the markets yesterday and finished reading today, neglecting my fatherly obligations completely, while my kids tried to prank each other, without much success, but frustration, and a resulting need for attention, which I was not willed to give, because of this book. Tucker, I adore the character, and Annie, and Duncan. Where does an artist/writer get all this stuff from? Where does inspiration come from and how do you turn it into art, or how come it is by some p...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Blablabla Aleatório rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nubia

Lendo Juliet, Nua e Crua eu relembrei porque gosto tanto do jeito do Hornby escrever e porque tenho vontade de ler todos os seus livros. Todos os elementos que me cativaram em Alta Fidelidade estão presentes em Juliet, temos um protagonista obsessivo (ainda que Duncan leve sua obsessão a extremos nem mesmo sonhados por Rob Fleming), relacionamentos fracassados e muitas referências musicais…

Duncan e Annie moram juntos, mas a casa sempre teve um morador a mais: Tucker Crowe. Se a obsessão de Rob e...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is probably my favorite of Hornby's fiction. Maybe he's mellowing with age, but his characters seemed more fun to hang out with than the characters of his past novels, who were more neurotic and self-involved, but thought themselves charming. Yeah, Tucker was pretty similar to some of Hornby's other boy-man protagonists, but here, he's all grown up with self-awareness and both a sense of humor and a sense of shame about his failings.

I think I said this about the collection of his essays wr...more

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Oct 20, 2012 E. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

While reading a Nick Hornby novel, one will never be moved to ask, "But is it ART?" I mean that as high praise, and I think Hornby himself might take it that way. If you have to ask if something's art or not, that means that it's either boring, pretentious, or ugly -- and it also means it's certainly not art.

Whatever other qualities Juliet, Naked may possess, artistic or otherwise, there is one thing that it is: a good novel. Whether or not that makes it art, I will leave to other people (and by...more

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Oct 13, 2012 N rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nick Hornby's books meant a lot to me when I first started reading them, as a freshman in college. I burned through High Fidelity and About a Boy. I read his first book, Fever Pitch, later, but it might be my favorite. I found Songbook a bit self-indulgent, but still identified with his sentiment that certain songs mean a lot to us at certain times in our lives (as dull a sentiment as this may be).

By the time How To Be Good came out, Hornby was an automatic buy for me. Unfortunately, this HTBG w...more Nick Hornby's books meant a lot to me when I first started reading them, as a freshman in college. I burned through High Fidelity and About a Boy. I read his first book, Fever Pitch, later, but it might be my favorite. I found Songbook a bit self-indulgent, but still identified with his sentiment that certain songs mean a lot to us at certain times in our lives (as dull a sentiment as this may be).

By the time How To Be Good came out, Hornby was an automatic buy for me. Unfortunately, this HTBG was a step backward. Hornby stretched himself as a writer, focusing on a female protagonist for the first time, but it didn't quite work for him. What's more, the guru angle was something of a disaster. Still, a readable book, and far better than what came next: A Long Way Down, an atrocious book. Hornby lost me for a while with this pile of, well, stuff.

Then came the Polysyllabic Spree. This collection of Hornby's criticism reminded me why I liked the man. It was witty, and self-depracative, and honest. And, when I went into Powell's on a summer Tuesday, I was happy to find a copy of Juliet, Naked.

Juliet might be Hornby's most mature effort yet. It is not as complete a story as his first three novels, but something about the author has changed, has grown. We have the same stock slackers Hornby puts in every one of his novels, but here, the standard storyline is flipped just a bit. Duncan, the character I assumed would be the protagonist, is a somewhat bigger loser than Rob in HF. Like Rob, Duncan is in a relationship that has seen better days. Unlike Rob, his soon-to-be ex has a backbone. This book's Linda, Annie, kicks Duncan to the curb and tries to figure out her life on her own. She steals the narrative and becomes the central character. The end result is somewhat anti-climactic -- Annie doesn't actually figure anything out -- but the "getting there" is worth the read.

Others have pointed Hornby's apparent need to avoid tropes in his writing, and the potential this tendency has to derail a narrative. If an author tries to avoid every single expected outcome, he runs out of outcomes. Hornby definitely does that here. Still, this was a tremendous return to form, and I look forward to the author's next book.(less)

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Aug 04, 2012 Mike Liu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The ending is an epigram, a cipher that begs a sequel if you must have some sort of conclusive finale. The novel builds to an impossible pitch and then ... pff. I dunno. I read another book to my daughter tonight, one about a prince and princess who are promised to each other and when they learn about it, the prince declares that he'll only marry for love; the princess as well and through misadventure, they find themselves in a bit of a Scheherezade (sic) situation: she spins a story whose endin...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Todd Carper rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was my first Nick Hornby book and it won't be my last. I hear that he has better works, and if that is the case...then I look forward to them. I seem to be stuck in a rut of reading books about middle aged people, but maye that is because I can relate. It is also pleasantly funny.

Juliet, Naked is the story of three people. At the very center is Annie (that helped my enjoyment of the book). Annie has been in a 15-year-relationship with Duncan. Duncan's not a bad guy, but perhaps the most no...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Abbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I love Nick Hornby. No, but actually, I adore him. And his writing. And everything about everything he creates. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

First of all, this is my second favorite book of his, following (by a miniscule margin) A Long Way Down. I liked the three others I've read of his as well, but not as much. I wonder why, since these two are actually his *less* popular ones, it seems.

But the plot here... it was just perfect. Like, actually: perfect. The irony of it was enough to cr...more

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May 02, 2012 Kira rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is my first of Nick Hornby's; a man hailed for his other novels in the late 90s early 00s.

A book about music, pop culture, obsessive website fandom, review writing, failed relationships and grabbing life by the horns so it doesn't all get away from you.... I read this using the audio CD version and the use of three separate actors to portray the main characters really brought them to life. I can't imagine how my experience would be if I were physically reading each person through my ow...more This book is my first of Nick Hornby's; a man hailed for his other novels in the late 90s early 00s.

A book about music, pop culture, obsessive website fandom, review writing, failed relationships and grabbing life by the horns so it doesn't all get away from you.... I read this using the audio CD version and the use of three separate actors to portray the main characters really brought them to life. I can't imagine how my experience would be if I were physically reading each person through my own voice -particularly when points of view often shift to one character describing another through their eyes.

I did love the topic, the humor, the characters (at least, loved how they were constructed and written, as not all their actions themselves were "lovable") but the last portion of the book, when you know the number of pages is winding down, (or in my case, in the last half hour of listening,) I really felt the same "imminent unhappiness" that one of characters felt. Before that though? I sped through the story like lightning. The dialogue was witty and relatable to me, as someone who collects CDs, analyzes artists' work and has an addiction to academic work. However, at the actual end, I was left with questions and a general feeling of depressed dissatisfaction about everything I had just read. In a word: pointless, except for maybe in the case of Annie, who I can sense some kind of long term "off screen" character shift, even if Hornby won't say exactly what she ends up doing.

Of course, I will be fair and say that I understand there may just be an attempt at straight parallel on Hornby's part. This being the case because real life and real emotions/trains of thought, (which I do feel he articulates beautifully, to the point of me having almost identical inner thoughts as the characters at times,) don't tend to wrap up all the pieces, regardless of whether its in a good or bad fashion. There are loose ends in real life, that sometimes, we don't figure out until some of the people we know have long since dropped out of our everyday lives for any number of reasons.

Regardless though, I didn't enjoy being left with a feeling of such open emptiness/negativity. Perhaps I just have to wait for the next Hornby novel like (detail spoiler) Annie's mom waits alone for Christmas every 11 and three quarter months out of the year.(less)

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Apr 13, 2012 Jeremy Poole rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Book by book Hornby is getting better, Juliet naked takes a peak into the lives of two normal professionals, Duncan and Annie, and exposes their boring tedious lives to us.
The plot is written around Duncan’s compulsion for a retired singer songwriter Tucker Crowe, and his love for this reclusive rock star. An argument about the recluse sees Duncan leave Annie for a dancer and Annie is left to address her childless life and all the wasted years, Enter the real Tucker Crow.
This book is a laugh...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Ben Dutton rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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...more 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 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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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 Acade...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.” — 41 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.” — 35 people liked it

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