Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Un libro divertísimo y lleno de temazos. Tardé más de lo debido en leérmelo porque cada vez que nombraban una canción tenía que buscarla.
Me he sentido igualmente asqueado e identificado con Rob, el protagonista.
Dick y Barry roban cada momento en el que salen.
Me he sentido igualmente asqueado e identificado con Rob, el protagonista.
Dick y Barry roban cada momento en el que salen.
Not one of the best books I ever read, but I don't remember any flaws
I laughed aloud reading this book when I first read it, nearly 15 years ago, and I reread it every so often. Rob is a thirtysomething record shop owner who decides he can solve his relationship problems by finding his old girlfriends and asking them why they dumped him. One of the few novels with a soundtrack :).
Un gran libro, Hornby riesce sempre a rubarti un sorriso, a metterti di buon umore con le sue storie vere ma brillanti, con la sua scrittura leggera, con le sue trovate (le famose playlist che ossessionano il protagonista)...
Le sue storie ti rapiscono e diventano una specie di medicina che crea dipendenza.
uno dei suoi migliori!
Le sue storie ti rapiscono e diventano una specie di medicina che crea dipendenza.
uno dei suoi migliori!
4.5
I loved this book. Probably the wittiest book I've ever read thus far. Hornby creates such an interesting narrative by creating a character who is so insufferable but you can't help but read on due to how miserable he is. Every reason he has to be so miserable is his own doing and he refuses to acknowledge it. It's satire on male behavior, especially in terms of romance is so asinine but unfortunately real that it's funny. Genuinely a great time, especially for those who enjoy the "male manipulator music" kinda meme.
I loved this book. Probably the wittiest book I've ever read thus far. Hornby creates such an interesting narrative by creating a character who is so insufferable but you can't help but read on due to how miserable he is. Every reason he has to be so miserable is his own doing and he refuses to acknowledge it. It's satire on male behavior, especially in terms of romance is so asinine but unfortunately real that it's funny. Genuinely a great time, especially for those who enjoy the "male manipulator music" kinda meme.
Updated with comments on the Hulu TV show at the end!
***
November is one of my least favorite months of the year: in Canada, it’s cold, humid and gray all the time, there are no stat holidays to give us a breather and everyone is losing their minds in the manic ramp up to the Holidays. That’s why I usually spend the month re-reading books that make me happy – I think of it as literary self-care and as an antidote to the crippling seasonal affective disorder that turns me into a raccoon every winter. “High Fidelity” has always given me a warm and fuzzy feeling that’s just perfect for my book-hygge binge.
Part of that is how much I relate to Rob. Well, used to relate, I guess: I was basically a Rob in my twenties. I am a music nerd, and to be honest, a bit of a music snob (I can’t control my facial expression at all when someone tells me they’ve never heard of Joe Strummer, and I once cried because a guy I liked told me he preferred the Perfect Circle cover of “Gimme Gimme Gimme” over the Black Flag original…). I am also naturally neurotic, and I used to over-analyse and dissect relationships, conversations and social interactions to death. But worse of all, I used to have this incredibly dumb pattern of falling for a guy’s potential instead of for who he was when we met, which, as you can imagine, never ended well. I broke the pattern eventually, but it wasn’t always a smooth sail. All that to say that I know Rob as if I had written him myself, and watching him try to figure out how everything could have gone so wrong between him and Laura makes me feel like there is hope for the most awkward of us if we are just willing to work on ourselves a bit.
Rob is a record store owner in his mid-thirties, but he’s one of those man-child who hasn’t matured much since his late teens. He spends his days at the shop with his employees, coming up with all kinds of Top 5 lists and being an absolute elitist jerk to people who aren’t as knowledgeable as he is about the Smiths. When his live-in girlfriend Laura leaves him, it plunges his comfortable but lazy life into complete disarray. He decides to try and figure out why he always seems to be getting dumped, and makes a list of his most memorable break ups with the intention to find the women and ask them why they rejected him. We follow him through a very belated coming of age, as he begins to see that he hasn’t exactly been a very good boyfriend to anyone in his life, and that the women may not necessarily be the problem…
I love Rob’s inner monologue, the caustic, self-deprecating but confused and lonely voice of a man who never took the time to understand the women he dated. I also love the way Hornby captures the way music can affect people very deeply: when Rob gets all out of sorts about the Peter Frampton cover, I remembered being moved by similarly ridiculous songs because for one reason or another, they hit a very specific nerve at the weirdest time. The scene still made me laugh, but I think I might have also blushed because I have been through that.
Mr. Hornby’s book is not a literary game-changer, but it’s a refreshing look into the neurosis that accompany modern relationships, our perpetual dissatisfaction with others, our selfish need to be happy at the world’s expense. Rob is more fun to hang out with than Emma Bovary, but both of them have the same issue of wishing their lives was exactly like their fantasies and they act out when that doesn’t happen. Rob, unlike Emma, eventually gets his shit together and one of the things I love most about this book is that it believes in forgiveness and second chances. There is hope and optimism in these pages, and while that might feel naïve at times, it’s also lovely. We all fantasize on what life could be, but we must never lose sight of how life really is, because it’s often much nicer than any wild fantasy we can come up with, and “High Fidelity” is a sweet reminder of that.
I really enjoy the movie, even with the Americanization of everything. John Cusack and Jack Black (“Don’t tell anyone you don’t own Blonde On Blonde, that’s obscene!”, is precisely the sort of obnoxious thing I say) play off each other perfectly and the soundtrack kicks serious ass.
***
The 2020 Hulu adaptation is absolutely amazing! There are many Easter eggs for fans of the movie, the music is obviously beyond fantastic, and Zoë Kravitz is a perfect Rob! I was afraid of what they would do with the character of Barry, but Da'Vine Joy Randolph truly makes the character of Cherise unique, loveable and scary all at once. Hulu sadly won't be making a second season - which seems to be what happens to really great shows lately, and I think it's a real shame because this was a complete delight. If you like the book and/or the movie, don't hesitate for a minute and watch the series!
***
November is one of my least favorite months of the year: in Canada, it’s cold, humid and gray all the time, there are no stat holidays to give us a breather and everyone is losing their minds in the manic ramp up to the Holidays. That’s why I usually spend the month re-reading books that make me happy – I think of it as literary self-care and as an antidote to the crippling seasonal affective disorder that turns me into a raccoon every winter. “High Fidelity” has always given me a warm and fuzzy feeling that’s just perfect for my book-hygge binge.
Part of that is how much I relate to Rob. Well, used to relate, I guess: I was basically a Rob in my twenties. I am a music nerd, and to be honest, a bit of a music snob (I can’t control my facial expression at all when someone tells me they’ve never heard of Joe Strummer, and I once cried because a guy I liked told me he preferred the Perfect Circle cover of “Gimme Gimme Gimme” over the Black Flag original…). I am also naturally neurotic, and I used to over-analyse and dissect relationships, conversations and social interactions to death. But worse of all, I used to have this incredibly dumb pattern of falling for a guy’s potential instead of for who he was when we met, which, as you can imagine, never ended well. I broke the pattern eventually, but it wasn’t always a smooth sail. All that to say that I know Rob as if I had written him myself, and watching him try to figure out how everything could have gone so wrong between him and Laura makes me feel like there is hope for the most awkward of us if we are just willing to work on ourselves a bit.
Rob is a record store owner in his mid-thirties, but he’s one of those man-child who hasn’t matured much since his late teens. He spends his days at the shop with his employees, coming up with all kinds of Top 5 lists and being an absolute elitist jerk to people who aren’t as knowledgeable as he is about the Smiths. When his live-in girlfriend Laura leaves him, it plunges his comfortable but lazy life into complete disarray. He decides to try and figure out why he always seems to be getting dumped, and makes a list of his most memorable break ups with the intention to find the women and ask them why they rejected him. We follow him through a very belated coming of age, as he begins to see that he hasn’t exactly been a very good boyfriend to anyone in his life, and that the women may not necessarily be the problem…
I love Rob’s inner monologue, the caustic, self-deprecating but confused and lonely voice of a man who never took the time to understand the women he dated. I also love the way Hornby captures the way music can affect people very deeply: when Rob gets all out of sorts about the Peter Frampton cover, I remembered being moved by similarly ridiculous songs
Spoiler
(“I Caught Fire” by the Used: you have my permission to laugh at me for ever)Mr. Hornby’s book is not a literary game-changer, but it’s a refreshing look into the neurosis that accompany modern relationships, our perpetual dissatisfaction with others, our selfish need to be happy at the world’s expense. Rob is more fun to hang out with than Emma Bovary, but both of them have the same issue of wishing their lives was exactly like their fantasies and they act out when that doesn’t happen. Rob, unlike Emma, eventually gets his shit together and one of the things I love most about this book is that it believes in forgiveness and second chances. There is hope and optimism in these pages, and while that might feel naïve at times, it’s also lovely. We all fantasize on what life could be, but we must never lose sight of how life really is, because it’s often much nicer than any wild fantasy we can come up with, and “High Fidelity” is a sweet reminder of that.
I really enjoy the movie, even with the Americanization of everything. John Cusack and Jack Black (“Don’t tell anyone you don’t own Blonde On Blonde, that’s obscene!”, is precisely the sort of obnoxious thing I say) play off each other perfectly and the soundtrack kicks serious ass.
***
The 2020 Hulu adaptation is absolutely amazing! There are many Easter eggs for fans of the movie, the music is obviously beyond fantastic, and Zoë Kravitz is a perfect Rob! I was afraid of what they would do with the character of Barry, but Da'Vine Joy Randolph truly makes the character of Cherise unique, loveable and scary all at once. Hulu sadly won't be making a second season - which seems to be what happens to really great shows lately, and I think it's a real shame because this was a complete delight. If you like the book and/or the movie, don't hesitate for a minute and watch the series!
- What came first – the music or the misery? Did I listen to the music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to the music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?
- It's brilliant, being depressed; you can behave as badly as you like.
- I'm very good at the past. It's the present I can't understand.
- I've had a bad week." What's happened?" Nothing's happened. I've had a bad week in my head, is all.”
- I lost the plot for a while then. And I lost the subplot, the script, the soundtrack, the intermission, my popcorn, the credits, and the exit sign.
- I've been thinking with my guts since I was fourteen years old, and frankly speaking, between you and me, I have come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains.
- my friends don't seem to be friends at all but people whose phone numbers I haven't lost.
- It's brilliant, being depressed; you can behave as badly as you like.
- I'm very good at the past. It's the present I can't understand.
- I've had a bad week." What's happened?" Nothing's happened. I've had a bad week in my head, is all.”
- I lost the plot for a while then. And I lost the subplot, the script, the soundtrack, the intermission, my popcorn, the credits, and the exit sign.
- I've been thinking with my guts since I was fourteen years old, and frankly speaking, between you and me, I have come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains.
- my friends don't seem to be friends at all but people whose phone numbers I haven't lost.
"High Fidelity" is an all right book. I liked reading it well enough, but I think my expectations were a bit high based on what friends of mine thought of it.
Putting at 5 stars because it struck many chords. It may not with everyone but it's still a fantastic book. Clever stuff.