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A review of How to Be Good

by Nick Hornby

Very humorous tale of a husband who becomes too nice.

Reviewed by: Alan McClymont
About Alan McClymont

How to Be Good I guess that everyone who has been in a long term relationship has had a moment when they suddenly realize that they don't really know what they are doing anymore and they have to re-evaluate what it is that they want. Everyone faces this problem in different ways and chooses to resolve the issue in a way which feels best for them.

Katie and David Carr are facing this exact problem. Katie, feeling bored with her marriage, has recently had an affair. She feels that she can justify this as David (her husband) has changed from someone who was simply funny and has become an angry, cynical, sarcastic (and, yes, funny) individual who is almost impossible to live with. She spends all of her time wishing that he would just be nice to someone for a change but to no avail.

Until, that is, David meets DJ GoodNews, a faith healer and all-round do-gooder. This chance meeting turns David into someone who tries to see the good in everyone and everything. Suddenly David is giving away their children's toys, asking homeless people to live in their house and generally being as charitable as he can.

As anyone can imagine a serious amount of stress is placed on an already shaky relationship. Katie wants to tell David that he is too good but how can she possibly criticize? Their friends don't want to know anymore as they miss David's humor. Their children begin to take sides.

This is a story which looks at the subject of being a good person. How would a person who is completely good be received by their friends, their family and their neighbors? The answer, it seems is not very well. It appears that we like to hear people preaching but practicing is quite a different matter.

Page-turner is a phrase which I would have to apply to this one. I felt compelled to keep reading no matter what I was doing and I actually stayed up all night to finish it on the day that I started to read. Surprises are rare but I felt the continuous need to find out just what David could possibly do next. The comedy of the writing is what really takes this book to a different level, however. I found that I was actually laughing continuously and part of my reason for turning the page was to find the next joke. It is rare to find so many jokes which you haven't heard before and which are genuinely unexpected.

I would say that this is a must-read even if only for the novel way in which the moral 'be careful what you wish for' is presented.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: How to Be Good

Copyright © by Alan McClymont, 2003

Reviewed by Alan McClymont :
-- Dead Famous - by Ben Elton
-- Neither here nor there - by Bill Bryson
-- Lucky Jim - by Kingsley Amis
-- Round Ireland with a fridge - by Tony Hawks
-- The River at the Center of the World - by Simon Winchester
-- The Rape of Nanking - by Iris Chang
-- Timeline - by Michael Crichton
-- How to Be Good - by Nick Hornby
-- Notes from a Small Island - by Bill Bryson
-- Player Piano - by Kurt Vonnegut
-- Wilt - by Tom Sharpe
-- Number9dream - by David Mitchell









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