[I am publishing this on the go from a little coffee shop in Appalachia. I apologize for any issues with the post formatting and the lack of proper proof-reading. I hope to be back at the Pop Bunker Central Offices soon.]
When I finished How to be Good, I did what I often do after reading a book – I examined the cover and back of the book with a new understanding as to what the cover-art and the complimentary blurbs represent. In this case, however, I was a little shocked by blurbs from all the famous agents of blurbitude because a great many of them referred to how funny of a book is Nick Hornby’s How to be Good. I had to wonder if the blurbs were pulled out of a hat, or if most of the blurb authors didn’t actually read the book and instead just wrote the same thing that they would write regarding anything Nick Hornby authors. How to be Good is depressing in its scalpel-sharp dissecting of the empty nature of man’s quest to Be Good and the swirling shades of gray, white, and black that permeates the novel in an oppressive, if all-to-accurate, commentary on the meaning of Good. Or rather what it would mean to literally Be Good if a person decided to act instead of politic. There are amusingly humorous bits, but I would not call this a funny book. Not at all.
How to be Good is deviates from Hornby’s other offerings. There are similar characters like David, who is not unlike Martin from A Long Way Down; also the protagonist, Katie, who is not that different than Rob from High Fidelity. Katie is also Hornby’s fist shot at writing a novel from a female’s perspective. It works, but not in any gender specific way. The book would have been about the same if the gender roles were reversed, except that in the assigned gender roles in How to be Good, Hornby once again gives us men readers plenty of ammunition for self-love and self-loathing ostensibly from a third-party perspective. Additionally How to be Good is much more of a modern fable than any of Hornby’s previous, more literal work.
Katie is a doctor and feels that being a doctor with liberalized sensibilities regarding society’s problems makes her a pretty Good Person. David is Katie’s husband and he is a quick-witted, angry, and sarcastic jackass who actually makes his (modest) living being a quick-witted, angry, and sarcastic jackass. David writes a column for the local paper called “The Angriest Man…” Katie is tired of David’s biting sarcasm, pithy replies, and angst toward everything from pop culture to politics. She feels she is not loved enough or appreciated and, since she is A Good Person and David is not, she justifies to herself the need for an affair with indistinct plans to leave David at some point in the future for a better life.
We learn most of the aforementioned early in the narrative. The story begins its journey into an existential parable during a tense fight between Katie and David. Katie decides enough is enough and informs David that she wants a divorce. David promptly ignores her – pretends that she never said anything about it. Katie is incredulous at fist. How can wife tell a husband that she wants a divorce only to have the declaration ignored? Katie recognizes the ploy as some kind of mean-spirited psychological warfare, but then also realizes how impossible of a task a divorce would be for her (similar to Rob’s conclusion in High Fidelity). She and David have two children and, although she supplies the majority of the income that pays for the house, bills, etc., David is the homemaker. He takes care of the kids, does the housework, and is more of the traditional mother-like figure of whom their children rely. The reality of the situation is that she would probably lose house and children not to mention a husband that, though she does not like, she is comfortable with. She realizes, and even vocalizes to her brother, that her wish is for David to be David in regard to his function, but to be a different person completely. Be careful what you wish for, right?
For a while, life continues much the same for Katie and David. Katie gives in, discontinues her affair, and the couple continue their comfortable roles not better or worse than the preceding decade of married life. One night David comes home cured of his chronic back pain. He informs Katie that he spent $200 on what amounts to a faith healer who is called DJ GoodNews. Katie is thunderstruck for David has always ranted and raved against faith healers and alternative medicines of all kinds. What more, shortly after his visit to GoodNews, David completely and relentlessly changes his ways. GoodNews heals more than David’s back; he also cures all of David’s selfish bits. David becomes Good with a capital “G”. Gone is the anger, the sarcasm, and the biting replies; gone too is all sense of humor, understanding of scope, and sense of self.
What is it like to be married to an incarnation of Good and Just? It should be perfect for a humanity minded doctor who gives to charities and hates that people go hungry and are homeless. Katie is A Good Person after all, right? It is at this point that How to be Good deconstructs our perception of good and Good. What if someone who gives a few bucks to the shelter and doodles frowny faces when contemplating homelessness actually decided to do something? Something like invite a homeless person to live with them? Or have unfortunate mistreated children from school over to play with their well adjusted and popular children? Or invite the hungry over to dinner?
The juxtaposition of concepts similar in definition but drastically different in execution is the driving force of Hornby’s novel. How to be Good explores a much larger scope than Hornby’s other novels while still presenting on the same size canvas. What is the nature of being a good person, a good spouse, a good parent? What is a good relationship? Is there is a place for self or selves in Good? Or does the act of being Good require militant selflessness? Would the world be a better place if we went out of our way and invited to our home the smelly ostracized kid from school and the homeless man at the bus stop? Even if the results lead to animosity? Is The Greater Good a greater good than what is good for ourselves? Is our stuffed-belly harmony achieved only at the cost of a tolerable existence for others? Why don’t I, right this minute, find someone less fortunate to buy a meal for an invite home for a warm bed and shower? Because it was be awkward? My awkwardness is more important than The Greater Good?
The questions asked and bantered about in How to be Good are more numerous than what I care to detail here. Some of the more obvious concepts are mentioned above, but the novel contains many levels of provocative musings that must be read in context to understand. Unlike Hornby’s other work, How to be Good does not give the reader an out at the end; does not show that the road ahead is the same as the road behind, only perceived from a different, more understanding perspective. Instead, How to be Good challenges the reader examine the cliché meaning of life itself.
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