I did not find this book Hilarious as quoted on the front cover by USA Today. I found one thing mildly funny.
It's about a marriage in turmoil (not exactly a funny subject). Then introduces this weird mystical person and it just gets weirder from then on.

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:)

La trama, a mio avviso, presenta qualche forzatura e i personaggi sono ​a volte ​definiti in modo eccessivamente stravagante, tuttavia i temi di fondo del romanzo vengono ​sviluppati con sensibilità, equilibrio e competenza. ​
Anche in un contesto decisamente meno riuscito rispetto ai lavori precedenti, lo stile narrativo, venato di intelligente ironia, rivela lo scrittore di razza; e sotto i suoi fendenti si sgretola la maschera di ipocrisia e di cinismo dietro la quale oggigiorno ci si nasconde nell'illusione di essere "buoni".
​In particolare, ​ho apprezzato il modo in cui Hornby ha saputo calarsi nell'ottica della protagonista narrante, riproducendo con sorprendente precisione i meccanismi della psicologia femminile nei confronti del matrimonio, della vita familiare e dei rapporti interpersonali.​
Bello anche il finale "sospeso", perché a certi interrogativi, nati da certi presupposti ed alimentati da certe situazioni, non si può mai dare una risposta​ inequivocabile e risolutiva.

Good book, read it awhile ago so I don't really remember much about it, other than I liked it.

Hornby is a great writer though. His characters are really good and the story evolves really well. I remember that nearing the end of the book I got real mad at Hornby because I thought that he had betrayed me. He had written this whole book making me feel like I could do so much better then at the end he started to rationalize all of my failures. But then right at the end he pulled me right back with a punch in the gut. It was great. He's good at manipulating your emotions.


Quotes:

"I think I was troubled by the lack of quirks and kinks in my autobiography."

"That is another chamber of my heart that shows no electrical activity - the chamber that used to flicker into life when I saw a film that moved me, or read a book that inspired me, or listened to music that made me want to cry. I closed that chamber myself, for all the usual reasons. And now I seem to have made a pact with some philistine devil: if I don't attempt to re-open it, I will be allowed just enough energy and optimism to get through a working day without wanting to hang myself."

"This is what it feels like: you walk in to a room and the door locks behind you and you spend a little while panicking, looking around for a key or a window or something, and then when you realize that there is no way out, you start to make the best of what you've got. You try out the chair, and you realize that it's actually not uncomfortable, and there's a TV, and a couple of books, and there's a fridge stocked with food. You know, how bad can it be? And me asking for a divorce was the panic, but very soon I get this stage of looking around at what I've got. And what I've got turns out to be two lovely kids, a nice house, a good job, a husband who doesn't beat me and presses all the right buttons on the lift...I can do this, I think. I can live this life."

"You see, what I really want...is the opportunity to rebuild myself from scratch."

"I'm a liberal's worst nightmare...I think everything you think. But I'm going to walk it like I talk it."

"You don't need to be a heroin addict or a performance poet to experience extremity. You just have to love someone."

"I don't care what gets done. I just don't want to die feeling that I never tried. I don't believe in Heaven, or anything. But I want to be the kind of person that qualifies for entry anyway."

"I wanted someone wise to teach me how to do the things I needed to know to survive the rest of my life."

"I can see the appeal of born-again Christianity. I suspect that it's not the Christianity that is so alluring; it's the rebirth. Because who wouldn't wish to start all over again."

"If we don't live rich, beautiful lives, does it mean we've screwed up? Is it our fault? And when David dies, will someone say that he too lived a rich, beautiful life? Is that the life I want to stop him from leading?"

"I can do this. I can live this life. I can, I can. It's a spark I want to cherish, a splutter of life in the flat battery; but just at the wrong moment I catch a glimpse of the night sky behind David and I can see that there's nothing out there at all."

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.

Varem on Hornby mulle meeldinud, aga see oli väga igav; sel ajal, kui raamat pooleli oli, vaatasin meelelahutuse nimel nelja filmi, kus mängisid The Rock ja/või Vin Diesel.

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

Il libro mi è stato regalato per il mio compleanno e per questo (e per il titolo: l'avete visto il titolo??) non ho potuto resistere e l'ho inserito direttamente in cima alla mia coda di lettura.

"Come diventare buoni" mi è piaciuto moltissimo: la narrazione è scorrevole e la trama talmente assurda da strappare le sue brave risate, in più la... bontà estrema, diciamo, di BuoneNuove e del "nuovo David" mi hanno permesso di utilizzare alcune perle di puro cinismo che altrimenti sarebbero rimaste immagazzinate nella mia testa: un vero spreco! (Sì, mentre leggo capita che io parli - e rida, e pianga. E insulti personaggi e/o scrittori - da sola. Non ditemi che non l'avete mai fatto anche voi!).

Il punto di Nick Hornby è semplice. Essere profondamente e assolutamente Buoni non è possibile; non è possibile applicare le opinioni generali (e suvvia, anche particolari) che abbiamo su concetti idealizzati come la Giustizia, oppure la Bontà, o la Lotta alla Povertà, e così via, perché noi - e lo so che è sconvolgente - noi, dicevo, non viviamo in un mondo idealizzato. E tuttavia farlo presente in pubblico, esternare questa incredibile deduzione, non è appropriato proprio perché generalmente queste piccole pragmatiche verità non vengono accettate.
Che viviamo immersi in una realtà profondamente umana, e quindi imperfetta, e che noi stessi siamo altrettanto profondamente umani (e dunque profondamente imperfetti) è un dato di fatto che si contrappone sempre all'assurda idea che tutto quanto sia perfettibile, senza considerare che - dato che gli individui che dovrebbero apportare tali miglioramenti sono di per sé imperfetti - ci devono essere dei limiti alla "perfettibilità" stessa dell'Universo Mondo.

...Ci sarebbe poi anche quella piccola postilla che dice che, dato che siamo umani - dunque imperfetti e vedasi righe precedenti - una buona parte della quantità di male che esiste in questo mondo (la stessa che avanza dal limite di perfettibilità di cui sopra?) potrebbe esserci necessaria per sopravvivere, ma questo sarebbe un concetto ancora meno appropriato di quello a cui fa da corollario, presumo.

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.

2.5 stars rounded up, because I enjoyed Hornby’s prose and pervasive wit despite his story not really going anywhere and ending with a jarring abruptness, completely lacking closure or resolution. Taken as an exaggerated satire of marriage, it’s easier to enjoy, especially since the characters are all varying degrees of unlikable; but one wishes Hornby would’ve gone full War of the Roses if he was giving us no one to root for. If I had to pick a side, it would be with adulteress Katie; even though she's a bit sanctimonious in her narration (I must be good--I'm a doctor!), she feels the most like a real person. Husband David, on the other hand, goes from being a completely insufferable, petulant asshole with anger issues to a completely insufferable, self-righteous prig with a Polyanna complex; and neither side of his character’s 180 is believable in the slightest as an actual human being. And don't even get me started on "DJ GoodNews" (eye roll). This was a fast read but ultimately a frustrating one, because Hornby has an abundance of clever insight and salient points about marriage, goodness, humility, etc., but it’s muddled by people and plotlines that never feel authentic. Still, I enjoyed the writing itself, so I’ll gladly give the accomplished Hornby another chance—most likely with About a Boy, as the film adaptation has long been a favorite.

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.

Light, kind of fun, but ultimately forgettable. I'm not sure I get the whole Nick Hornby thing. I feel like he's writing for the film script (inevitable starring Hugh Grant or somebody like that) rather than putting together a decent book. I mean, it's not horrible, but there are a lot books in the library that are way better than this one...