Hornby tries something ambitious here (a novel less plot driven, more interested in the big questions of existence) and it almost works. Accept there's only the bumpiest of roads for this plot to travel on and it loses its way a bit too much. It's hard to care about big issues when they don't seem really anchored to anything, when the fiction of this work of fiction seems unfinished at the expense of what this work of fiction wants us to think about.

Als ich den Klappentext zuerst las, dachte ich an einen Frauenroman, von einem Mann geschrieben, aber diese Geschichte ist wirklich "completely different" und sehr amüsant für eine Zynikerin wie mich.

Die Ärztin Katie ist mit einem wütenden, unglücklichen, zynischen, rhetorisch sehr talentierten Misanthropen verheiratet, der seine Familie mit verbalen Abwertungen, Beschimpfungen und Geringschätzung terrorisiert. Nachdem sie den Wunsch zur Scheidung äußert, der völlig ignoriert wird, trifft ihr Mann einen Guru, der ihn völlig umdreht. Aus dem Zyniker wird auf Knopfdruck ein genauso verbissener, brilliant argumentierender widerlich glücklicher Gutmensch mit Sendungsbewußtsein, dem ich persönlich auf jeder einzelnen Seite des Buches ein Messer in den Rücken rammen könnte.

Die Auswirkungen auf die zwangsmissionierte Ehefrau, Kinder und natürlich auch auf die ganzen Streuner, die aufgenommen werden, sind derartig köstlich und regen auch zum Nachdenken über unser Weltbild an. Die Frage, wie man wirklich "Gut" ist, stellt sich da schon und auch der "gute" Zweck mancher hedonistischen Eigenschaft, die wir mehr oder wengier rücksichtslos ausleben. Ich sehe dieses Buch auf jeden Fall so, dass man manches schlechte Gewissen in Pension schicken sollte, alleine um der eigenen geistigen Gesundheit wegen.

Den Stern Abzug gebe ich mit Bedauern für den Schluss, der gar keiner ist, weil alles so dahinplätschert und der sich nicht wirklich traut, eine Tendenz oder Aussage zu treffen. "How to be good" wird letztendlich totgeschwiegen und begraben. Aber so ist das wirkliche Leben - in Büchern bzw. Fiktion wähle ich jedoch lieber den unrealistischen Showdown mit einem eindeutigen Gewinner in diesem Krieg.

Mixed Feelings!!! I enjoyed it but I just couldn't connect with the characters and the end made no sense!

I loved this book, even though I hated the beginning and I didn't really like the ending either. At first I thought it was a book about nasty people, divorce and affairs, and I'm really tired of those themes. It turns out it was about much more.

I don't care that Hornby is a man writing from a female protagonist's POV, since he did it so well. I love humor about manners, morals and hypocrisy, and this is was what the book is about.

So many people found this book depressing, but I didn't. I found it realistic, human and honest. I read about it in "Stuff White People Like," and although the SWPL author may have been making fun of it, I really liked it. Maybe because I'm white, or guilt-ridden, or relate to the characters, but I liked it.

The ending doesn't wrap things up with a bow, but maybe the lesson is that people should start thinking about the small things in life, that lead to the big things, before it's all over. Who knows? I'm just trying to be good, like everyone else;)

Similar vein to Zac… a very funny exploration of our class comfort and where we draw the line with giving.

First, I have to say that I love Nick Hornby. When I read "About a Boy" I knew that if I opened the book and there were two pages of words facing me, at least one of those pages would make me laugh. Out loud. And I cried. It's one of my top 5 favorite novels. And "High Fidelity"? Forget about it. Hilarious stuff.

But "How to be Good" missed the mark for me. I felt the characters were unbelievable. David's transformation... GoodNews' 'healing powers'... and the constant contradictions that made up the main character, Katie. She thought one thing and would say another. She'd say something and you knew that she thought the opposite. I know that REAL people are filled with dichotomies, and I don't expect characters in a book not to have them, but there were simply too many contradictions in this story.

It frustrated me that the affair situation never really felt resolved. I also couldn't come to terms with the fact that she didn't really like her kids. And the ending... the very last line? What a disappointment. Here's a story about a sad, deeply troubled family. There was very little humor (or at least laughter on my part) and the ending was so sad. Not even sad, really. Just, "Blah." Disappointing, for sure.

I must've liked it enough to finish it. I think I was hoping for redemption. Not the kind that Katie was seeking... but some sort of ending that was either happy or tragic ... or maybe they would experience some sort of growth. Give me something ... Make me laugh or cry or say "Ah-hah! So THAT is why they went through all this!" But in the end, it was, well, boring. I should have given it one star, but I really do think Nick is incredibly talented. I guess we all have our off days (or stories, in the case of a writer). Would I recommend this book to anyone? No, not at all. Would I buy another Nick Hornby book? Absolutely.

This was a very interesting look at what it means to be a good person and live a worthy life; while I did find it a little irrelevant to my own life and mildly depressing at times it was definitely still a worthwhile read, also just very enjoyable and hilarious to read.

As I started reading this I said to myself, “Jeff, maybe your first Hornby book probably should have been High Fidelity not this one.” The narrator’s a 40ish British woman who’s married to an angry guy and who has two kids and is currently having an affair, but you know brutal cynicism and snark transcend everything. It really does.

The questions is thus: If your spouse, suddenly goes from Mr./Mrs. Truculent, spewing venom everywhere, to someone who wants to do nothing but good deeds, do you:

1)tInsist upon having their head examined (My choice)?

2)tDo you remain on the sidelines and lob sarcasm and jaded remarks and try to undercut all the goodness (Her choice, my second choice)?

3)tDo you become an official doer of good deeds(HA! Let’s face it, no one’s choice)?



Hornby’s a funny and insightful writer, but even I was turning away from the world weary voice of sardonicism by mid-way through the book. Too much of a good thing.

3.5 This novel was easy to read but, for me, it's going to take a little time to digest it.

What's it about? Well, it's partly about power struggles in marriages and about how, when we get what we think we want, we often don't want it after all. And it's about how we can thoroughly despise a spouse or a child in one moment, then want to embrace them in the next moment.

The novel's also about sadness as a human condition. Here's a quote from the female narrator about her daughter:

"What has happened to Molly in her first eight years? More or less nothing. We have protected her from the world as best we can. She has been brought up in a loving home, she has two parents, she has never been hungry, and she receives an education that will prepare her for the rest of her life; and yet she is sad, and that sadness is not, when you think about it, inappropriate. The state of the relationship between her parents makes her anxious; she has lost a loved one (and a cat); and she has realized that such losses are going to be an unavoidable part of her life in the future. It seems to me now that the plain state of being human is dramatic enough for anyone; you don't need to be a heroin addict or a performance poet to experience extremity. You just have to love someone."

And, of course, the novel is about how to be good, and this is the part I'm going to have to think about. There's lots of humor here. These are the narrator's thoughts when she attends church:

"I decide, on the spot, to let God into my heart, in the hope that my newfound faith can somehow be used as a vicious weapon in the marital war. It is true that not everyone discovers the Lord in this way; some would argue that it is distinctly unChristian, in fact, to become a convert in the hope that it might really upset somebody. But God, famously, moves in mysterious ways."

You may immediately realize what the book is saying about how to be good, but I'm still thinking it over.

Very funny book. It's a satire of the society, set in time in a pre-crisis scenario, with its consumerism and no worries about unemployment, salary cuts and so on... so, nothing to do with the current situation.
The wife is the narrator of her husband's spiritual change and everything is told by her point if view (that is great and needs to be in that way to be accurate) but I missed to know more about what happened to him. It would be great to know his opinion in all this story, extracts from his diary of something like that ...
For sure I would like to read more hornby 's soon.

Whilst I admit that there are some shrewdly observed elements of a fractured relationship (unfortunately writing from experience), this is not a pleasant read at all. It begins as it means to go on... and on... and on...

I had enough of a struggle making sense of my own disaster without looking on in Peeping Tom fashion at someone else's

Completely annoying MCs. I'm surprised I made it through. Disappointed because I like the author.