Sunday, 26 April 2009
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
Book Title: High Fidelity
Author Name: Nick Hornby
Why I decided to read this book: I can't remember why I first bought this, but it's a book I find easy to dip into when I'm bored, so I've read it quite a few times. :)
Summary: Rob owns a record shop in London, where he and his employees regularly discuss their top five songs for various occasions. When Rob gets dumped by his girlfriend, he begins to obsess about why his girlfriends have all left him and decides to find out.
Strengths: Nick Hornby is a great writer. He's created some fabulous, realistic characters in this book, and the main character Rob is probably the best. The use of first person perspective really allows you in Rob's head, who is very honest with the reader about his past behaviour. The first person narrative also allows Hornby to directly challenge the reader from time to time in a way that really makes you think about aspects of yourself that perhaps you've forgotten about. The story draws the reader in and the ending has that feel-good factor that makes it worthwhile to reread in moments of boredom or low spirits.
Weaknesses: Some of the characters could have been more fleshed out, but perhaps it is the first person narrative that hinders this to some extent. I would like to have seen more of Liz, for instance, but since she's Laura's friend and this is Rob's story, there just isn't room to really get to know her. I also felt some parts of the story were... um... contrived isn't the best word for what I'm trying to say here but it's close enough, I guess. What I mean is that parts of the story either didn't quite seem to fit what I expected of the characters or felt a little rushed. However, these episodes didn't impact greatly on my enjoyment of the book.
Overall Opinion: Read it. And see the film. Because they're both fab!
Rating out of Five: 
