No clue how to describe this book to myself or my coworkers or anyone generally. I liked it though.

The first 30 pages of this weren't enjoyable at all, and the final 10 pages are a huge let down. That said, the 250 pages in the middle of the book were great. I can't think of another book that had a bad start and a bad finish but the middle was so well done. If the entire book was like the main bulk of it I'd consider this as a 5-star read. Hornby's greatest strength as a writer is definitely his witty / entertaining dialogue.

One of the "blurbs" on the cover of my library copy this book uses a one word review: "hilarious". This is very misleading. "How to Be Good" is an excellent read, confronts the many changes in a modern marriage where husband and wife are unsure of the ground of the marriage. There is humor. There are some very funny moments but this is not pure comedy. Not in my eyes. It's a portrait of modern ennui and angst mixed together and forming a very messy stew.

Katie, the wife, is a doctor, and one of her consistent refrains as she assesses her life and the lives of those around her is that she is a doctor and does good things for people every day. But she's struggling to believe it. Her husband, David, has been a negative, argumentative, non-working presence for several years. And there are 2 children. Can she leave? Should she leave? Can David become the loving husband she thinks she remembers?

Oh my! And this is only the very beginning. Then there are THE CHANGES!! the GOOD things that happen. Well this is where one becomes happy you aren't Katie or live in Hornby's imagination. It's funny and bleak and outrageous and true to somebody's life but thankfully not mine.

Rating a strong 4
Recommended for those who enjoy domestic drama/dramedy/?comedy.

The voice is pitch perfect. So easy to read, I snapped this up in three days. Funny, canny, with entertaining presentation of some ugly truths about the nuclear family.

::Spoilers start here::
Katie is going to sleep at a friend's apartment and thinking about why she wants to step away, have a time out from being David's wife. "That's all there is left, when you take away working hours and family suppers and family breakfasts: the time I get on my own is the time I would have spent being a wife, rather than being a mother or a doctor. (And God, how frightening, that those are the only options available. The only times when I am not performing one of those three roles is when I am in the bathroom.)"

I liked how Katie has moved to some self knowledge by the end of the book. She knows that she wants to be with her family, including her husband. She knows that it's important that they function and support each other as a family and not invite various acquaintances into that intimacy. She knows that she needs to read and take in art in order to nourish her mind. She's fairly clear that she will choose middle class complacency and the easy path rather than engaging with every issue that comes past. But she's still ignorant of her own values beyond these items. I thought the last line of the book was an atonal clash with what was a satisfying falling together at the end. But I grant that Katie has not widened her consciousness very far and has not done wrestling with her selfish ness and her vanity about being "good". So the blankness she sees beyond her family makes sense.

Τελικά το ειχα ξαναδιαβάσει. Δεν θυμομουν τίποτα.
Παραξενο ρε παιδι μου πώς μερικά βιβλια περασαν και δεν ακουμπησαν που λενε, κι άλλα χαρασσονται μέσα σου σαν με ξυράφι..

I really need to see the movie An Education. Nick Hornby was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, and the critics thought he did a pretty fine job. I also heard that his YA novel, Slam was fine. I'd like to see Hornby doing a fine job because I've pretty much given up on him.

I loved Fever Pitch; it is part of my personal mythology (I am an Arsenal fan, and it is very nearly a bible to Gooners). I also loved High Fidelity: slacker, music loving greatness. But since that brace of excellence, Hornby has been on a poor run of form.

His lowest point, for me, is How to Be Good. I am not usually one to be too critical of derivative works, believing as I do that the bulk of writing is derivative of something, but what I can't stand is an author who derives material from himself. Everything he does here is something he's done better somewhere else.

He did the miserable bastard and music appreciation better in High Fidelity, where he also did relationships better. He did middle aged, male redemption better, though not much better, in About a Boy. And he wrote much, much better in Fever Pitch even if it was his first book.

For a man who loves to joke with plenty of bitterness that he'll never win the Booker Prize, he sure produces plenty of drivel (come to think of it, maybe he'll win the Booker Prize anyway. Drivel seems to work).

I'm probably not being fair, but I've really loved Hornby's work, and I want to love it again. It's sorta like being an Arsenal fan right now. I love Wenger and what he brought to the club, but another transfer window has past and we've still got Almunia in net and Wenger's talking up the same old crap: "youth," "belief," "patience."

Fuck all that. I want a trophy this season. And I want Nick Hornby to get back to "being good" himself, not just writing about some wanker and his experiment with the homeless.

This is the first Hornby book I have read and he did not disappoint. I found it fun and truly original. Katie, the main character, and her quirky, confused thoughts are very entertaining. It makes you realize how our minds can go crazy sometimes specially when put in odd circumstances.

This story is somewhat ridiculous but it also presents very serious issues on family and relationships. It speaks a lot about love and what it really means and gives importance to marriage and commitment. In a very humurous way, this book brings up the issue of charity and its evil side -- how doing good for other people can go wrong and cause hate instead of love.

I probably will not read this book again but it was definitely enjoyable and smart. I'm looking forward to reading more from Nick Hornby.

zeer muah

def don't recommend unless you want to listen to a marriage story esq thing. i originally came into the book thinking that it was going to tell me how to be an actual good person with like tips and tricks on how to be more patient or kind. but alas that was an incorrect assumption. but i thought it was interesting. definitely not my cup of tea but i wanted to see it through. if you are going through a mid life crisis and want to read about someone else's midlife crisis to feel better, then this is the book for you. but if you like me, are a teenager who has had the sum total of zero serious relationships, then i would say this might not be the book for you:)

I did enjoy some parts of this novel but others are quite inscrutable. I would try to read another book of Hornby, maybe High Fidelity or About A Boy, and let's see if he will persuade me to add him on my favorite authors.

Peccato davvero per il finale, la seconda parte di questo libro non mi è proprio piaciuta, ho avuto la sensazione che nemmeno Hornby sapesse bene cosa farsene di BuoneNuove e dei protagonisti.
Peccato perché la prima parte invece è spassosa, fortemente sconsigliata a chi immagina la vita di coppia come una nuvola sospesa a forma di cuore. E' preferibile essere single incalliti o avere alle spalle almeno 30 anni di matrimonio per affrontarlo con leggerezza.
Comprendo quindi i molti voti negativi. Non l'ho trovato deprimente come scritto da altri, tuttavia quanto accade ai due protagonisti di questo libro è un calderone in cui ci starebbero le storie di almeno altre 10 coppie. Troppi accadimenti in breve tempo, problemi e infiniti misunderstanding che possono capitare senz'altro in una lunga vita matrimoniale, ma qui concentrati in poche settimane, conseguenze velocissime e personaggi a tratti sul filo del credibile.

Mai fidarsi delle recensioni e del polverone mediatico sollevato attorno ai libri. Quando è uscito non l'ho letto subito perché condizionata da articoli più o meno ironici sulla impossibilità della bontà di David. Un libro non deve essere né vero, né verosimile, deve essere quel che pare all'autore! Se ne può essere oltraggiati, stimolati, annoiati, ma a quel punto possiamo chiuderlo. A me questo libro è parso notevole, sia per l'idea che per la "controidea". La moglie non è toutcourt cattiva, si sforza di capire e comprendere, ma allo stesso tempo si vuole mantenere sanamente egoista. Mentre leggevo ero decisamente curiosa di vedere se riusciva a terminare il libro senza rompere il "meccanismo" (non lo dico, leggetelo, ne vale la pena). La post-conclusione, i libri sono una gran consolazione, o no?