Nick Hornby!

"What can I possibly say about Nick Hornby’s essays on his reading that I haven’t said before?" My thoughts exactly. A few years ago, when Nick Hornby's previous book of articles came out, I linked to things mean a lot and dubbed us "Hornby groupies". Today, she reviews Hornby's latest collection of articles, More Baths, Less Talking, and the result is the same: she loves Hornby even more with this volume, an emotional response similar to my own. She writes that

His columns appeal to me even when they’re about books I’m not likely to pick up myself because they’re never just about that one specific book. Like all the best writing, they use a particular reading experience as a point of departure to discuss, well, Life, the Universe and Everything. Hornby does this unassumingly, and his thoughtfulness and insight go hand in hand with a wonderful sense of humour. In short, I’m kind of in awe of his writing: he does everything I’ve always aimed for as a blogger, only a hundred times better.

Once again, she captures what it is to be a fan of Nick Hornby. He is of the people, "the people" being readers, as well all are. Sure, we like to read about writers, and are interested in what they have to say about writing, but we love to read what readers have to say about reading. This is also why Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night is the easiest book recommendation I can make.

I will end this post as I ended the previous post: "Go get this book so that you either a) know what I'm talking about or b) don't have to listen to me prattle on about Nick Hornby." 

Nick Hornby is back

Nick Hornby's monthly column "Stuff I've been reading" is back in action after an 18-month hiatus. Sure, he's been nominated for an Oscar and everything, but is that really an excuse? Doesn't he know that loyal fans have been waiting patiently? At any rate, he is back in old form, self-deprecating and all that. No football, however - I wonder what July's column will look like?


Nick Hornby: Stuff I've been reading

A few opinions on Nick Hornby

I found a couple of reviews of Juliet, Naked today and I wanted to share them. The first one is a favourable review, and the second, less so:

Baby Got Books

New Dork Review of Books

(and, of course, my own review).

I enjoyed the book greatly, as did BGB, but it is interesting that both of us seemingly found it difficult to explain what the book was about in one sentence. I am somewhat relieved to learn that it is not a personal failing that I was not able to sum this book up in a sentence (or, heaven forbid, six words). Is this a problem of the book? Of Hornby? Certainly not. The answer is that Nick Hornby writes about characters - this book is about two people who are involved in a, yes, highly convenient plot for our benefit. When a writer writes primarily about interesting characters involved in a seemingly uninteresting story, it is often difficult to explain why such a book is so great. Yet the book is indeed great.

Looking back on Hornby's other novels, the same is true. Can you sum up High Fidelity in a sentence? Or How to Be Good? Long Way Down has a fairly straightforward plot, but the characters are still quite strong. And An Education, though containing a thoroughly enjoyable story, is brilliant because of the great character brought to life by Carey Mulligan. So we all love Nick Hornby because of his characters, and the choices they face, and the same is true of Juliet, Naked. I tried to sum up the review further, but, alas, I cannot. I can only simply say that Nick Hornby is a terrific writer and Juliet, Naked proves that point once again.

P.S. watch Nick Hornby interviewed at the Oscars! 
 

Review: Juliet, Naked

I'm going to ignore the obvious questions about timeliness and push on with the review as though it is still October, or at least early November. What helps is that I saw a rerun of The Hour with Nick Hornby as George Stromboulopoulos's guest. Great interview!

Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked is an endearing work of escapist-quotidian fiction: the characters are everyday-types, and the story, though certainly unique, is not fantastical. Yet reading Juliet creates a place in your mind where even the most criminal of characters would be pleasant over a pint or two. In this case, antagonist Duncan is a whiny twerp but not by any stretch of the imagination is he a malevolent character. You cheer for Annie and Tucker above others, true, but you also cheer for everyone else. And everyone wins, in the end, including the reader.

Duncan is a major Tucker Crowe fan, perhaps the biggest in the world, and Annie, as his girlfriend, is number two by default. Duncan's infatuation with Crowe has become bigger than the artist himself, who created his own myth by disappearing from the public sphere abruptly 20 years earlier and leaving everything else to endless speculation. The novel starts with Annie and Duncan in the U.S., travelling to "sacred" Tucker Crowe spots - the Minnesota bar where he apparently made his last public appearance, his Bozeman, Montana childhood home, and, most crucially, the San Francisco home of Julie Beatty, the namesake of the artist's best and last album, Juliet. It all adds up to an intensely emotional experience for Duncan, and an eye-opening one for Annie, too: she sees Duncan as he is, a hopeless fanatic more attached to a legendary musician than his girlfriend of 15 years.

The story really gets started when Annie listens to a version of Juliet demos about to be released publicly for the first time (The album is called Juliet, Naked). The problem isn't that she listens to the album, but it's that she listens to the album before Duncan gets a chance to - it's an unspeakable breach of trust in his mind, and when she doesn't like the album that he considers sheer brilliance, well, it's all downhill from there. For Annie, however, it's all upside - she gets a chance to change her life, to "get back" those 15 wasted years. But things keep coming back to Tucker Crowe, and when she finally meets the iconic musician, perhaps the irony was too much to resist.

Hornby's writing is a smart as ever in this one. He shows his music chops, creating a love letter to both fans and fanatics of great music. Perhaps only slightly better, however, is his skill at writing about relationships. As in every of his books prior to this one, his depiction of warts-and-all characters and relationships is as appealing as his knowledge of music (his work on An Education is further proof of this). Overall, Juliet, Naked is an great read and should be read by every guy who's ever been in a relationship with music. Five solid gold records out of five. 

UPDATE: If you haven't already heard, Nick Hornby is nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Writing (Adapted Screenplay). Watch the results on March 7th. Go Nick!

Do Not Talk About Book Club comeback?

My wife and I watched newly received Christmas present and thoroughly enjoyable Julie & Julia yesterday. And, upon seeing how blogging reinvigorated 30-something Julie Powell into a meaningful existence, I decided that I, too, can be reinvigorated. DTABC has more or less been on a hiatus for the last six months, and I need some inspiration: not by cooking a French recipe a day, but by reading - wait for it - a book a day! Starting January 1st, I would read a book a day for a grand total of 365 books by January 1st, 2011. I was ready to go: a book a day, and real books, like Dickens and Tolstoy and Pynchon and Atwood - no grey areas, such as novellas or blogs, or Nick Hornby books. I was really inspired... until I read that after Julie Powell completed her massive Julie/Julia Project, she was once again lost and needed to find herself again, and turned to an adulterous affair and an apprenticeship at a butcher shop. After that, she was lost once again and decided to travel to world destinations where beef and meat processing are a major industry. After that, she wrote about her experiences in a new book, Cleaving, about butchering and, apparently, how to butcher personal relationships.

And all of a sudden, my fantastic dream of 365 books in 2010 disappeared. It was an impossible dream, if Powell was my guide. As Kim Moritsugu of The Globe & Mail writes, "the real Julie Powell is no Amy Adams". By all accounts, Cleaving is a self-absorbed tell-all that tells too much, and she takes up butchering "for reasons that are not made clear (nor even explored)". An unmitigated disaster, really: "Reading this book is like watching an automobile crash in slow motion". Ouch!

A fellow blogger, Jen from A Book a Week With Jen, felt similarly inspired by Powell's lead, and her blog is a result. She is still going strong, but her review of Cleaving shows that she's outgrown her mentor and become her own blogger:
"The reason I don't like the book is because the retelling of the whole sordid thing is dull. She whines -- a lot. Powell becomes that best friend who is dating the absolute wrong guy, knows it, still does it, and won't shut up about it." (Good for you!!)

I decided that the real Julie Powell was a poor role model to follow, and so I will follow the fictional Julie Powell, aka Amy Adams, who is sweet and cute and sympathetic, and I will try to blog on a regular basis if only to keep myself entertained. Of course, my wife will continue to be mortified, but I will persevere: Do Not Talk About Book Club will make a comeback in 2010!

P.S. Notes on Julie & Julia - Jen provides thoughts on the movie, Amy Adams, and Cleaving. She also provides the link to her first review, of Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1Tiny Apartment Kitchen.

October's Pick: Juliet, Naked

So the book reviews are few and far between lately. However, you can expect that I will post reviews about a number of books I've read lately, including Year of the Flood, The Time Traveler's Wife, Fables, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and our wayward book club selections A Prayer for Owen Meany and Inherent Vice. Although neither has made it to my "Already Read" section on Facebook, I will get to them soon enough. For now, however, I am reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

I have also not forgotten about October's book club pick. As everyone may or may not already know, one of my favourite authors is Nick Hornby. As everyone may or may not already know, Nick Hornby has a new book out. Thus, without really needing to explain myself further, Juliet, Naked will be October's book club selection.

I encourage all members to stay the course and maintain the discipline that has propelled us this far: don't give up on Owen Meany, get to Pynchon asap, and revel in the rare treat that is provided by anything writtenby Nick Hornby.

Summer Vacation Reading

Inspired by an essay on The Millions called What I Read on My Summer Vacation, I decided to write what I read on my summer vacation - as it turns out, not that much. However, I can talk about the books that we talked about on my summer vacation:

1. A Prayer for Owen Meany. As this is our current club selection, I dutifully brought it with me to our trip to New Jersey. I'm halfway through, and it's proving to be slow, probably since much of the story takes place around Christmas, which makes for terrible summer vacation reading. But John Irving's a great writer, and Owen Meany is a great character. I'm pushing forward, with high hopes for the latter half.
2. A Widow For One Year. Another John Irving book, this time purchased at an awesome book store in Greenwich Village my wife and I stumbled upon called Three Lives & Company.

It is the quintessential corner bookshop, with low ceilings and dark-wood shelves. I bought the American edition of Widow to mark the event. I have read the book a few times already, so I probably won't actually read this edition, but it already looks great on the shelf.
3. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger. I've been thinking about Salinger a lot lately, for a few reasons. One, I recently reread Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella, in which Salinger (or "Jerry") is a main character. Two, I recently rewatched Imagine: John Lennon and could not help but somehow implicate Salinger in Lennon's death, as Mark David Chapman was obsessed with Holden Caulfield and had a copy of Catcher in the Rye in his pocket when he shot Lennon to death. This feeling of tragedy was exacerbated by our visit to The Dakota and Strawberry Fields in Central Park:

Nine Stories is brilliant, however, so I forgave Salinger his involvement in the twisting of Chapman's mind.
4. Housekeeping vs. The Dirt. Nick Hornby's second collection of articles for The Believer are every bit as enjoyable as the other two. I can't really put into words what these books do for me, though "pure enjoyment" comes pretty close. And he talks about Miriam Toews in this one, which gets me even more excited, as I always feel a little bit of excitement whenever a Canadian is featured in an international-type program or book. The same is true for Owen Meany, as the protagonist eventually ends up in Toronto. Even though it's Toronto, I still think to myself, "cool, he's talking about Toronto!" I'm so Canadian.
5. Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Everybody's favourite book about a bookstore became my wife's beach book this summer. Since she liked it, a lot, I am inclined to read it sooner rather than later. In her words, "It's a strange, mysterious mystery. And strange."

6. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson. Another American edition find. I shopped at Borders for this one, and was lucky enough to find an edition that is not available in Canada, making my biblioventure complete. My wife also recently finished this one, and liked it, a lot. It's a dark, dark mystery, set in Sweden and is part one of a trilogy. Part 2 is out now in hardcover, Girl Who Played With Fire, and the third one is set for release next summer. The author wrote the trilogy but died before its publication, and its subsequent translation from Swedish has been an interesting biblioventure in itself, as the entire trilogy, called the Millennium trilogy, has been fully translated into French, but not English. There's also a movie in the pipe, making this a burgeoning franchise opportunity. For all the hype, however, well-deserved, according to my wife.

That's my trip in books - look for less interesting posts in the days to come. Also, it's close to September reading time, so get your thinking caps on for a September book selection.

Nick Hornby Talks Books! Yay!

Apparently I'm in a good mood today, what with all the exclamation marks. Anyhoo, Nick Hornby contributed to a writer's table display at British bookseller Waterstone's and shared his selection with the Times Online. The list is mixed with old and young, classic and new, fiction and non-fiction - much what you'd expect from Nick Hornby. Does anyone defend literature like Nick Hornby? He doesn't resort to arguing for artistic merit, but makes his picks based on personal enjoyment or growth. His position is, in a nutshell, "if you enjoy it, it's a good book." I can get behind that. Furthermore, he selects two Canadians, Carol Shields (The Republic of Love) and Miriam Toews, for A Complicated Kindness, which made me squeal with joy: "A fresh, quirky fictional voice, telling us about a community of which we know nothing. What else do you need from contemporary fiction?" As my wife mentioned, we know a little more about the community than he does, which, by his reasoning, should reduce our enjoyment of the book. Nevertheless, it is on his list, and thousands of British folk will pick up a new Canadian author, which makes me happy for Miriam Toews. It also creates in my mind a fantastical scenario for which I would pay any dollar amount to see actualized: Nick Hornby and Miriam Toews talking books and life with each other at some literary event, or, even better, in my living room. Two young(ish) authors with a similar view of lightness and tragedy of life and who bring wit and poignancy into everything they write (even book lists), together, talking books? I can't think of anything better. For now, however, the only place they can be found together is on this blog. Sigh.

More Hornby love

I came across another Hornby groupie today - it seems that everyone loves Nick Hornby's Shakespeare Wrote For Money. As a result, I went back to my review of Nick Hornby, thinking that I could do a proper review of the book. The previous post really is more of an unabashed book crush. However, the only words available to me were "Yes!" and "Bonnie, I'm going out to buy some books. I'll be back in a few hours." Which is why I liked the review from Things Mean A Lot: "[H]is reading philosophy is pretty much the same as mine... [w]hich actually makes it harder to write about this book, because I’m tempted to just post 40 passages with a few comments like “Yes!”, “Exactly!”, “Go Nick!” or “Bwahahaha” scattered here and there." It's funny because it's true. Go get this book so that you either a) know what I'm talking about or b) don't have to listen to me prattle on about Nick Hornby.

Happy New Year

I was hoping to post on interesting things during the nearly month-long hiatus between now and the last post, but for several reasons I did not; now, there are several reasons to post once again:

1. I just picked up Nick Hornby's new book Shakespeare Wrote For Money. It is the third collection of his articles for The Believer, an American arts magazine (and published by McSweeney's). He is interesting and colloquial and I feel that my life would be enriched by having a beer with him, mostly because I am convinced that he feels the same way about me. The book reads like a memoir, a memoir through books, as it were, and has created a wonderful segue to the next reason for posting after such an absence.

2. Through Hornby's new book I picked up his first volume of articles, The Polysyllabic Spree, which led me to a Google search of Gregory Corso's poem "Marriage" (a quirky poem which can be found here) which led me to an interesting lit blog called Literary Kicks. Literary Kicks is a lit blog - possibly the first - which I intend to read on a semi-regular basis. Which leads me to my next reason for posting.

3. Through Literary Kicks, I read a review of a review of Azar Nafisi's new memoir Things I've Been Silent About. This lead me to the review itself, which made me want to read the book, which reminded me that I was already reading book of hers, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which is subtitled "A memoir in books," leading you, dear reader, back to Nick Hornby, who reveals himself ever so slightly in each of his Believer articles about the books he's bought and read each month. Which, of course, leads me to the next reason for posting.

4. Nick Hornby is a good writer because he makes other people think they're good writers, too. His opinions are my opinions, written a thousand times better, but nevertheless leads me to thinking that I can write my own opinions just as good. And so, in my mind, this post is written as well as Hornby's assessment of his brother-in-law's new book. At this point, Bonnie calls from the other room, "you're a weirdo". In my mind, however, I am triumphant. Now to do just as brilliant a job on the dishes.