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Shaina's Reviews > How to Be Good
How to Be Good
by Nick Hornby
by Nick Hornby
To say I didn't get this book would be a profound understatement. Near as I can tell, it's about all the terrible, mundane ways life can grind you down, how hypocracy gets all of us in the end, and the way what was once beloved can turn into what you hate in the ones you used to love.
I found this book tremendously depressing. Also, it made me never want to get married or have kids. Ever.
I was tremendously disappointed in the ending as well, at the same time as I admired Hornby's technical skill. In general, I found the writing style to be too spare for my tastes, though it did add to the sensation of walking through a barren wasteland in search of color and contrast.
I found this book tremendously depressing. Also, it made me never want to get married or have kids. Ever.
I was tremendously disappointed in the ending as well, at the same time as I admired Hornby's technical skill. In general, I found the writing style to be too spare for my tastes, though it did add to the sensation of walking through a barren wasteland in search of color and contrast.
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Andrea
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Jun 07, 2007 01:07pm
Oh wow, I only remember this as "my least favourite Hornby book" for the weird plot and the lack of pop music references (clearly I'm biased); was it really that depressing? Now I'm kind of belatedly intrigued.
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Maybe I was just in the wrong mental state to really appreciate it (I read most of it while on a five-hour train ride from Boston, and then while riding the New York subway for an hour at a time between Queens and Manhattan), but it just really seemed to be all about the pettiness in life and the way we all inevitably fail ourselves and each other, and that's just not fun to read about, you know?
I'm about 100 pages in and so far I agree. Plus, the protagonist seems awfully unlikable and it comes off like she hates not only her husband, but also her kids. UGH.
The moral of this story is that you CAN be "good" without solving all the issues in the world. You do what you can do without compromising yourself in the process. Katie found that her line was in having Barmy Brian come over once every few months, and that was what she was capable of. And that still makes a big difference in Brian's life. When she tried to go further, her marriage and her family suffered. There is a balance and every little bit counts.
