“How to Be Good” by Nick Hornby
It’s been awhile since I didn’t want a book to end. I’m delighted to say it just happened with Nick Hornby’s HOW TO BE GOOD. The magnificent dialog between Katie and David, an unhappily married couple in London, grabbed me from the beginning.The tension, sarcasm, and well-worn jabs aimed at tender spots are spot on. And when the story gets rolling, it rocks.
Katie is a doctor. She helps people. David is an angry journalist. He disses everyone. Katie is having an affair. Their lives are plenty messy without the upheaval that occurs when David meets a spiritual healer named GoodNews and has a monumental conversion. He wants to be good. He wants Katie and their two children to be good. Liberal talk is no longer enough. David and GoodNews aim to walk the walk, and if that means offering the homeless a place to stay or being kind to people who are very not kind themselves, or giving their children’s toys and computers away, well, so be it. Goodness is all that matters.
The results are hilarious, heart-wrenching, and thought-provoking. Hornby is a master at showing our complicated, ambivalent selves in ways that made me chuckle, wince, and think, “Yes. It would be just like this. Yes.”
When I finally let myself finish HOW TO BE GOOD, I was sad that it was over, but satisfied with the ending. How do we be good? Great question. I highly recommend HOW TO BE GOOD and how this story explores the answer.
Katie is a doctor. She helps people. David is an angry journalist. He disses everyone. Katie is having an affair. Their lives are plenty messy without the upheaval that occurs when David meets a spiritual healer named GoodNews and has a monumental conversion. He wants to be good. He wants Katie and their two children to be good. Liberal talk is no longer enough. David and GoodNews aim to walk the walk, and if that means offering the homeless a place to stay or being kind to people who are very not kind themselves, or giving their children’s toys and computers away, well, so be it. Goodness is all that matters.
The results are hilarious, heart-wrenching, and thought-provoking. Hornby is a master at showing our complicated, ambivalent selves in ways that made me chuckle, wince, and think, “Yes. It would be just like this. Yes.”
When I finally let myself finish HOW TO BE GOOD, I was sad that it was over, but satisfied with the ending. How do we be good? Great question. I highly recommend HOW TO BE GOOD and how this story explores the answer.