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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
I’ve read reviews of other Nick Hornby books, may even have some on my “to read” list. I saw this one at the library and picked it up. While acknowledging that this is not great literature, I thoroughly enjoyed this book!
It is the story of 40 (or thereabouts) year-old Annie, who lives in the English seaside town of Gooleness (Is this an actual town in England? Every time I read the name of the town, I thought “coolness.”) with Duncan who is obsessed with reclusive singer, Tucker Crowe and his record, Juliet.
I could identify a lot with Annie as she struggles to make sense of her relationships with Duncan and Tucker, her unsatisfying job and her desire to be a mother.
“He (Duncan) was now beginning to wonder whether the jigsaw was the correct metaphor for relationships between men and women after all. It didn’t take account of the sheer stubbornness of human beings, their determination to affix themselves to another even if they didn’t fit….They were motivated not by seamless and sensible matching, but by eyes, mouths, smiles, minds, breasts and chests and bottoms, wit, kindness, charm, romantic history and all sorts of other things that made straight edges impossible to achieve.” (122)
“The truth about autobiographical songs, he (Tucker) realized, was that you had to make the present become the past, somehow: you had to take a feeling or a friend or a woman and turn whatever it was into something that was over, so that you could be definitive about it. You had to put it in a glass case and look at it and think about it until it gave up its meaning, and he’d managed to do that with just about everybody he’d ever met or married or fathered. The truth about life was that nothing ever ended until you died, and even then you just left a whole bunch of unresolved narratives behind you.” (397)
August 2021 - watched the movie and enjoyed it as well.
It is the story of 40 (or thereabouts) year-old Annie, who lives in the English seaside town of Gooleness (Is this an actual town in England? Every time I read the name of the town, I thought “coolness.”) with Duncan who is obsessed with reclusive singer, Tucker Crowe and his record, Juliet.
I could identify a lot with Annie as she struggles to make sense of her relationships with Duncan and Tucker, her unsatisfying job and her desire to be a mother.
“He (Duncan) was now beginning to wonder whether the jigsaw was the correct metaphor for relationships between men and women after all. It didn’t take account of the sheer stubbornness of human beings, their determination to affix themselves to another even if they didn’t fit….They were motivated not by seamless and sensible matching, but by eyes, mouths, smiles, minds, breasts and chests and bottoms, wit, kindness, charm, romantic history and all sorts of other things that made straight edges impossible to achieve.” (122)
“The truth about autobiographical songs, he (Tucker) realized, was that you had to make the present become the past, somehow: you had to take a feeling or a friend or a woman and turn whatever it was into something that was over, so that you could be definitive about it. You had to put it in a glass case and look at it and think about it until it gave up its meaning, and he’d managed to do that with just about everybody he’d ever met or married or fathered. The truth about life was that nothing ever ended until you died, and even then you just left a whole bunch of unresolved narratives behind you.” (397)
August 2021 - watched the movie and enjoyed it as well.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Hornby cuts to the heart of so many everyday feelings. The world he describes so humorously is very much the world I see. For a while, I thought he might have written another "High Fidelity", but while I did laugh out loud a few times, I found some of the reflection on art and its meaning to be a bit heavy-handed.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book had me laugh out loud and contemplating the bitter sweetness of life all in one.
I found this in my iTunes audiobooks (Mom, did you give this to me?) and I'm hooked. When I have something excellent to listen to on my iPod, I compulsively clean the house and walk the dog. Let's just say the house is sparkling and the dog is tired.
Enjoyable and thoughtful as Hornby always is, but the Annie character strikes me as a "character" rather than a person -- a collection of cultural ideas about a woman without a child closing in on 40. Loved the Tucker.