The typical male in a Nick Hornby novel is mentally adolescent, moody, consumed with boyish fetishes, and disconcertingly good at wasting free time. These characters often incite irritation or pangs of furtive embarrassment in readers, depending on the latter's gender. Male...
[more]The typical male in a Nick Hornby novel is mentally adolescent, moody, consumed with boyish fetishes, and disconcertingly good at wasting free time. These characters often incite irritation or pangs of furtive embarrassment in readers, depending on the latter's gender. Male readers begin to wonder why they can't let go of childhood sexual fantasies, why they can't commit to the women who love them, and why they're so damned romantic, violent, and weepy. Female readers wonder why they have sex with childish men, leave them, return to them, and perpetually tolerate their shit. While many British authors write for a selective audience, Hornby writes for all men and women; he spreads his wealth of self-pity, rejection, and sloppy love all around.
Of "Fever Pitch," the best seller that made soccer appealing even to American audiences, Hornby said, "Whatever the great moments of your personal life are, either they've been a long time coming or they're undercut by something else, whereas when the ball hits in the back of the net, it's something you always want." The book's painfully humorous and deeply psychological examination of Britain's football fanatics gets deep into the contradictions and absurdities inherent in the mindset of the typical British male. "About a Boy," Hornby's next novel, depicts that typical male's approach toward women and relationships. His protagonist Will Lightman poses as a single dad, with the help of a local fatherless kid, in order to bed babes. But emotional entanglement catches him unawares -- the book is a heartfelt piece that strums the reader's sentimental chords.
The novel that put Hornby over the top, "High Fidelity," follows the stubborn, fearful Rob Fleming, who uses record collecting as a means of escapism and spends his waking hours lamenting lost loves and lusts. At 35, Fleming is prone to tantrums, too many cigarettes, and dramatic mood shifts; one moment he's a sop wailing in the rain for the girlfriend that deserted him, the next he's puffed up with pride over an awkward one-night stand. Here, Hornby humorously examines the nature of unconscious double standards and hypocrisy (his protagonist obsesses over his ex-girlfriend's affair even as he's in the midst of his own). Yet his loser is strangely likeable -- probably because audiences, to their chagrin, find it all too easy to relate.
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