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  • I'm a fan of Hornby but...

  • The only thing that made this book enjoyable were the two pages that mentioned Dick from High Fidelity. Overall, the book was quintessential Nick Hornby, I just didn't enjoy the subject matter.

    I also had to get back into Hornby's style of writing. He has a tendency to always sound like he's ... Continue

    The only thing that made this book enjoyable were the two pages that mentioned Dick from High Fidelity. Overall, the book was quintessential Nick Hornby, I just didn't enjoy the subject matter.

    I also had to get back into Hornby's style of writing. He has a tendency to always sound like he's starting a whole new section, but it never really goes anywhere and you have to connect it back to the rest of the story. Which I liked in High Fidelity and Long Way Down, but was sort of hard to follow when the subject matter is about the conflict of whether to divorce your husband or not.

    And the last sentence confused me, which is never good. I'm still not sure how the book ended, and there was nothing else left after the final words.

    I think fans of Nick Hornby should read How To Be Good at least once, but it probably won't be your favourite book by him. I probably won't read it again.

    

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• ― Joel Goodman said on Jun 13, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • I know that this book is supposed to be an easy read, but it was downright dreadful. If I had had any other book available, I would have read something else.

    

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• ― Cassie said on Apr 15, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

Katie Carr is a good person. She recycles. She's against racism. She's a good doctor, a good mom, a good wife....well, maybe not that last one, considering she's having an affair and has just requested a divorce via cell phone. But who could blame her? For years her husband's been selfish, sarcastic, and underemployed, writing the "Angriest Man in Holloway" column for their local paper.

But now David's changed. He's become a good person, too-really good. He's found a spiritual leader. He has become kind, soft-spoken, and earnest. He's even got a homeless kid set up in the spare room. Katie isn't sure if this is a deeply-felt conversion, a brain tumor-or David's most brilliantly vicious manipulation yet. Because she's finding it more and more difficult to live with David-and with herself.

"Hornby pulls off the seemingly impossible: He tackles marriage and the nature of benevolence from a woman's point of view without sacrificing his impish charm." (New York)

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Margin notes of this book

• Novelsocietydivorcefictionnick hornbyno brainerNovelsModern Fiction