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How to Be Good

By Nick Hornby

(415)

| Hardcover | 9780670888238

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Critics

Good grief

How to Be Good Nick Hornby 244pp, Viking, £16.99 Buy it at a discount at BOL Now, pay attention, because this one's just for you. Having neatly anatomised the dilemmas of Arsenal fans, half-hearted boyfriends and anxious father figures, Nick Hornby h ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

How does it feel to be a woman? First, the Good News...

How To Be Good Nick Hornby Viking Penguin £16.99, pp244 Buy it at a discount at BOL You can't help but get along with Nick Hornby's books. They look you straight in the eye and, in voices that never strain for effect, tell you likeable truths about l ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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13 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

Nothing more, nothing less

Than ordinary life.

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fran_ces said on Jun 1, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

I am a big Nick Hornby fan and bought this the day it came out. It was a surprise - not so much the female voice which everyone has been making so much fuss about (and which Hornby pulls off very well) but the themes of the book. I had pinned Honrby down as a rather cynical writer who concentrated o ... (continue)

I am a big Nick Hornby fan and bought this the day it came out. It was a surprise - not so much the female voice which everyone has been making so much fuss about (and which Hornby pulls off very well) but the themes of the book. I had pinned Honrby down as a rather cynical writer who concentrated on relationships, so it came as a big surprise when the themes of the book deepened beyond love / marriage towards spirituality and religion, how to be good, and whether as individuals we can solve the problems of the world. The result is a fascinating novel which , as every pages turns, makes you think harder and deeper with every sentence.

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Lunarossa said on Jul 7, 2009 | Add your feedback

Everyone wants to be good, Katie was just the same. That's why Katie became a GP.
However, the outcome often turned out to be the opposite when we tried to be good. Katie herself having an affair; David her hubby and the angriest man in Holloway undergone a spiritual conversion; Tom her son ... (continue)

Everyone wants to be good, Katie was just the same. That's why Katie became a GP.
However, the outcome often turned out to be the opposite when we tried to be good. Katie herself having an affair; David her hubby and the angriest man in Holloway undergone a spiritual conversion; Tom her son stealing in his school; Molly her daughter sticking to a most disgusting friend; GoodNews a stranger coming to live in their house... because in her mind a good person should stand all these, Katie ended up in depression and lost which she as a doctor couldn't cure. She wondered when she could not even look after her family and her patients properly, how could she possibly had the spare capacity to treat others well? She didn't know what to do in her marriage, in her surgery and in her life. At the end of the story, nothing dramatic happened like those 'living happily ever after', but just that tiny moment in the storm making one feel supported, warmth and united.　
The world is not perfect. Not all people are 'compatible' with us. That's not a fault just a fact. Being good to all around may be impractical sometimes. So, on one hand you surely will be good to those you love but on the other don't forget to be kind to your own self. Indeed, life is short!!
The book is a self confession from Katie. Much English local language and difficult vocabularies!
　
"what I really want... is the opportunity to rebuild myself from scratch. David's picture of me is complete now, and I'm pretty sure neither of us likes it much; I want to rip the page out and start again on a fresh sheet."
"We know what's right but we don't do it because it's too hard, it asks too much, and even trying to cure Mrs Cortenza or Barmy Brian is no guarantee of anything, so I somehow end each day in debit rather than credit."
"People talk about a face that only a mother could love, but Christopher's entire being would surely stretch maternal ties beyond the point of elasticity."
"There are some people you just have to hit, aren't they?... You just can't help it."
　

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Candy said on Jan 17, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Ironic earnestness or earnest irony, as the Guardian wrote about...

First, thank you Nick for having a seat on the other side of the world. Females’ ordinary hells.
Thank you for being earnest with our endless ridiculous earnestness, loop minded such as our emotional roller coaster and hilarious the way you only can be. Even for faking rationality, the way only a w ... (continue)

First, thank you Nick for having a seat on the other side of the world. Females’ ordinary hells.
Thank you for being earnest with our endless ridiculous earnestness, loop minded such as our emotional roller coaster and hilarious the way you only can be. Even for faking rationality, the way only a woman does.
I don’t have children, but I can right now anticipate the pretty itchy guilty questioning I’d live along motherhood. All the good enough, strict enough, far enough.
I’m in a messy marriage, but I might join the fussy broody women club at this very moment: I’d declare war and build up colorful dramas when all I need is a good book review to read on the Guardian behind a closed door, half an hour on my own, preferably late evenings.
Without quitting my Being good, of course.
Good what? Good professional? Good Sister? Good Daughter? Good Wife?
Give up the being good question, and read the amazing Hornby’s version.
Ah. For sure, I agree that Ginger Spice is beyond the pale. Hope it’d be take into account.

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Daniela * said on Oct 26, 2011 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

This is my third book by N.H. I loved High Fidelity and appreciated Fever Pitch even if I did not like the subject, bu I was utterly disappointed by this one. It seemed to me a bit of McEwan ‘s imitation. I mean, nowadays “naïve problems” of rich people who need to feel “good” because they have not ... (continue)

This is my third book by N.H. I loved High Fidelity and appreciated Fever Pitch even if I did not like the subject, bu I was utterly disappointed by this one. It seemed to me a bit of McEwan ‘s imitation. I mean, nowadays “naïve problems” of rich people who need to feel “good” because they have not really problems to cope with about the void of their relationship.. The reading was quite slow as I had been quitet bored for all the time.
The main topic is a woman who is unhappy in her marriage and his husband who decides to convert to “goodism” , i.e. it is not fair we have so much an others nothing” after meeting a kind of “spiritual healer”… who got his “powers” out of drug abuse.. uhm..
In this entire frame there are two poor children quite psychologically abused by these two immature naïve bourgeois parents…
I should have read a “harmony novel”.. I could have come across something better… really disappointed by it as my expectations were higher as for such a writer.

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Barbara ABP said on Mar 6, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback