Good As Gold? Or Good for Nothing? (How to be good - Nick Hornby)

Member Name: rosie.s

Product:	How to be good - Nick Hornby
Date:	17/07/02 (138 review reads)
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D’you think that Nick Hornby will ever write a book that is not set in North London? How To Be Good opens with a sentence about being in a car park in Leeds but after that everything in the book happens within a couple of miles of Hornby’s beloved Highbury – again. I personally wish he’d move his stories away to another place. I know you are supposed to write about what you know but surely Hornby has ventured beyond Archway once or twice in his life. Here we go again, with another bunch of characters who live and work in Holloway.

For the first time, Hornby has decided to write from a female characters point of view – Katie Carr, mother, wife and GP who, according to her own complex moral calculations, is entitled to an affair because she is basically a good person. Her work sees her caring for people and at home she has to put up with a lot. Her marriage to David – the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway – is far from great and they spend most of the time arguing and trying to score points off each other. Hornby’s gift for dialogue shines through here, as he gets the tedium and irritation of domestic rows exactly right – the sort that spark off over something trivial like who should put the rubbish out, go round and round in circles and then escalate into all out war.

David is portrayed as a grumpy, sarcastic 40-something bloke. If you knew him socially, you’d probably quite like him for his caustic wit and cynical take on life, but to put up with it on a daily basis as his family do, is draining. So Kate tells him she wants a divorce, although she surmises that she doesn’t want anyone else, just a different David, a new David. Well, whaddya know? Be careful what you wish for as the saying goes, as David undergoes a complete character transformation, following his encounter with faith healer DJ Good News. He stops being angry and sarcastic, and starts questioning the way he cou
ld make an improvement to his life and help make the world a better place (man). Katie is far from delighted at this change in her husband, especially when it means moving the wonderfully monikered DJ Good News into their house, and giving away their Sunday lunch to the homeless.

David’s efforts to be good include giving up work because writing a column as the Angriest Man in Holloway is not conducive to this new way of life, and setting up a project to get everyone in their street to give up their spare room to a homeless person. Surprisingly, this actually gets off the ground, and enjoys a degree of success. Kate starts questioning her own outlook to life, which is somewhat smug and self-satisfied; wanting to help but not at the sacrifice of any of her own comforts in life. How To Be Good does cause you to question your own values and makes you wonder what does it mean to be good, and am I doing it? That said, there were times when I probably should have been pondering such questions but instead I was wondering who they’d get to play Kate when this is undoubtedly made into a film. (Your suggestions are welcome BTW. Helen Baxendale perhaps, though she may be a bit on the young side?)

How to Be Good is an enjoyable read but it is not without its faults. There’s something lacking from this story, the plot doesn’t quite strike the right chord and a major suspense of disbelief is required to accept David’s change in personality. Other things too, like Kate’s affair and her feelings towards it, don’t ring true. As usual, for Hornby, the pages are packed full of metaphors and analogies, some you read and think, “Yes! That’s exactly it!” But others are so clunky, they make you want to groan out loud. He wants to take note from one of his own characters, who tries to compare dating guys to christmas shopping, and tails off when she realises the analogy is not working…

Kate̵
7;s two children, Tom and Molly, are both believable – Molly as an irritating, priggy do-gooder; Tom as a typical ten year old boy. He is one of the most likeable characters, sulky and truculent but also forthright, blunt and therefore very funny. The kids’ conversation is spot on, perfectly capturing the way that pre-teen boys communicate in particular, with a thoughtful explanation for the uninitiated on the way that “Doh!” and “Der!” differ in meaning. (One is meant to convey stupidity in oneself, the other is meant to signify stupidity expressed by someone else.) There’s lots of reference to popular culture, which helps make the characters seem a bit more believable; just from knowing that David likes Seinfeld and Tony Hancock, it tells me more about him than a paragraph of descriptive prose or another wobbly analogy ever could.

A good read, Hornby’s style is easy to follow. Fluid prose, amusing dialogue and painfully accurate portrayals of family relationships more than make up for those awkward metaphors and the Holloway environs (again).

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