Rating: 
Summary: By one of world's best authors...
Review: ... yet sadly one of the worst novels I have ever read. Unbelievable (in all the wrong ways), shallow and, untimately, pointless. Read anything else by him instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Thumbs down from a Hornby fan
Review: Among my favorite reads are "About a Boy" and "High Fidelty." And, truthfully, Hornby writes just as well in "How to Be Good." His characterizations provoke reaction, the depth of Katie's thoughts are very real, and the wry, sarcastic humor is on target.Even so, I did not enjoy this book. Finishing it was just a hair less than a struggle. I don't necessarily read to feel good all the time (though that is among the reasons), but this book _really_ doesn't make the reader feel good. It's downright depressing and frustrating. I wanted to shake Katie so many times; admonish her for not standing up for herself more. Then again, I also wanted to shake her for relying so heavily on her profession to make her "good." It is highly annoying. But I suspect that is part of Hornby's point, so I won't go any further down that road. A talented writer, yes. An interesting, though somewhat dubious storyline. Worth your time? Perhaps. Unfortunately only you can answer that question.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow...
Review: As I read the reviews written by the other readers of this book, a growing feeling of contempt for the ignorance of our time-spirit rises in me. I don't care if I sound arrogant, but I just can't believe that so many people gave this book such poor reviews. The only reason I can come up with, is that pure genius seldomly is understood within the lifespan of the creator.
I'll admit that the storyline in itself isn't a pageturner, but that's not at all the issue. The real storyline takes place within the main-character, who is a brilliant representant of modern man. She sympathizes with the weak, but she doesn't empathize - therein lies the whole difference. We know that people starve to death everyday, that beggars sleep in the streets and that 13-year old girls in Thailand have to prostitute themselves in order to survive. And we care...just enough to sometimes feel a sting of guilt for not doing anything about it. Then we might contribute with a few dollars now and then, or have our old clothes sent to Guatemala and voilá: the guilt goes away. And if it doesn't, it's not worse than we can live with it.
The beauty about this book is that it isn't moralising. It's not trying to tell us that we SHOULD be better people. But what it does tell us is the fact, that we could really make a difference if we bothered to. This book is not a highly academic discussion about morality and ethics, nor is it a shallow attempt to tell the reader to open his/her eyes of the state of the world. It's simply a hysterically funny and precise description of a typical hypocritical mind of the western society, who gets challenged with the knowledge of her own power to change other peoples lives today...if she can be bothered.
Read it, it's hilariously entertaining, funny and intelligent.
If you want to know where I'm coming from, some of my favourite stuff include The Simpsons, Paul Auster, American Beauty, Chess, Luke Rhineheart (Diceman), Shakespeare, old Donald Duck cartoons and Stanley Kubrick.
Rating:
Summary: How To Be Good could have been better...
Review: First, I have to say that I love Nick Hornby. When I read "About a Boy" I knew that if I opened the book and there were two pages of words facing me, at least one of those pages would make me laugh. Out loud. And I cried. It's one of my top 5 favorite novels. And "High Fidelity"? Forget about it. Hilarious stuff.
But "How to be Good" missed the mark for me. I felt the characters were unbelievable. David's transformation... GoodNews' 'healing powers'... and the constant contradictions that made up the main character, Katie. She thought one thing and would say another. She'd say something and you knew that she thought the opposite. I know that REAL people have contradictions and I don't expect characters in a book not to have them, but it was simply too much in this story.
It frustrated me that the affair situation never really felt resolved. I also couldn't come to terms with the fact that she didn't really like her kids. And the ending... the very last line? What a disappointment. Here's a story about a sad, deeply troubled family. There was very little humor (or at least laughter on my part) and the ending was so sad. Not even sad, really. Just, "Blah."
I must've liked it enough to finish it. I think I was hoping for redemption. Not the kind that Katie was seeking... but some sort of ending that was either happy or tragic ... or maybe they would experience some sort of growth. Give me something ... Make me laugh or cry or say "Ah-hah! So THAT is why they went through all this!" But in the end, it was, well, boring. I should have given it one star, but I really do think Nick is incredibly talented. I guess we all have our off days (or stories, in the case of a writer). Would I recommend this book to anyone? No, not at all. Would I buy another Nick Hornby book? Absolutely.
Rating: 
Summary: A "bad" book from a "good" author
Review: Hornby has nothing to say and rambles on and on to no effect. "How to be good"? A simple question to answer - treat others with respect and keep your sense of humour. Why do it? Because we all want to live in a civilized world. What's so hard to understand about that? The fact that he needs to write this daft book questioning the whole thing points to a crisis in Hornby's own life, not in our society. A poor relation to High Fidelity, which was witty, detailed and accurate. I personally don't believe in faith healers and I don't believe that an intelligent, educated person would have the kind of spiritual conversion that David has had. Once the novel became fantasy rather than reality, I found that I couldn't really care about the characters and skim-read the rest of the way to the end. Still, some good bits of writing, and I sincerely hope Nick cheers up before his next novel!
Rating:
Summary: Contemporary humor for upperclass atheists
Review: Hornby's new book is 'quite'in every sense:
Quite funny, quite intelligent, and quite good. But if you've never read one of his novels before, I recommend you start with About a Boy, High Fidelity or Fever Pitch. His earlier work will stand the test of time; if How to be Good will, that remains to be seen. Why?
It reads fast and the idea is very funny: if you hate your marriage and husband (because he's full of cynicism and curses in front of the children), and he suddenly sees the light of GOODness - then you might want to reconsidder your opinion.
He starts bringing healers and homeless people in to your house, gives all your money and the kid's toys to charity, and forces other people to do the same - then you hate him even more. And the nasty part is, that you have no good reason to. Because being GOOD is good, isn't it?? When even your 7 year old daughter gets infected with the GOOd-virus, and invites smelly classmates and mentally patients over for dinner, you start questioning yourself. Because what is your argument for refusing the deprived admittance to your home? or giving half of your income to youth delinquents?
Somehow though, you know you are 'normal' and the others have lost their minds. Where lies the border between being GOOD and being mad? It's this philosophical problem that Katie has to solve.
If Hornby had only restrained himself from exaggerating, the theme would've had more impact. Now, the story line and the characters are so stereotyped and bizarre, that you can't imagine it really happening. It's a funny story with some very striking insights in marital and human conducts that'll get you involved, but it keeps losing you too many times. This is the kind of book that will harvest many laughs if you summerize the story to others, and you ask yourself why you didn't enjoy it as much as you appear to have.
Rating: 
Summary: Is it even possible to Be Good?
Review: How to Be Good, by Nick Hornby, was a great read, hard to put down, sail right through kind of book. An excellent, serious book, but with plenty of humor. Funny, yes, but he doesn't shy away from the difficult ending.
The characters are well formed, and brought to life with all their faults on display. Each character, in their own way, faces the question of "How to be Good." David was once proudly known as "The Angriest Man in Holloway." Now he's trying to convince his neighbors to take homeless kids into their spare bedrooms. His wife, Katie (the narrator of the book), is a doctor, which has got to be good, right? Except she's having an affair and wants out of her marriage. The children must take sides, all while being good, of course. And then there's GoodNews, an energy healer and David's spiritual guide, who seems rather guideless himself. Who's good? Who isn't failed in some way or another? Goodness may be something to find in the little, small moments, not in the grand gestures. Sometimes the moments are so small, they're easy to miss. Hornby, however, brings all these moments to light.
Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy, ...) is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. I'm going to have to read more of him. Two thumbs up.
Rating:
Summary: Not very compelling reading
Review: I have read Hornby's other novels and enjoyed them thoroughly; unfortunately, this one wasn't nearly as funny or interesting. I think the author deserves a lot of credit for writing a believable female protagonist, Katie, who is a complicated character and not based on a stereotype of a "woman". Hornby manages to create a few really honest moments, such as when Katie admits that she is irritated with her kids and doesn't think they're extremely cute--maybe at times that she doesn't even like them at all and feels like smacking them, though she never does. It's rare that these sentiments get expressed at all in fiction or film or in real life, let alone from a male author. And Hornby raises a lot of interesting questions about who is "Good" and who is a hypocrite--these are topics for a lengthy discussion, to be sure, but they felt a bit muddled in print.
I found several of the characters annoying (not unlikable, which isn't even a big deal unless the character is boring--annoying is much worse), which made it difficult to read through the entire novel, and often the arguments made about Goodness and selfishness seemed to err on the side of sentimentality. The tone of the book felt too uneven at times--sometimes it was depressingly bleak, other times too preachy. I realize this may have been brought about by the very nature of trying to answer the many questions raised--the characters have several epiphanies and changes from one side to the other, as well as the issues being extremely complex and not cut and dried.....
Essentially, if you are a reader who wants to get into reading Nick Hornby, I wouldn't recommend this. Read High Fidelity or About a Boy instead. And even if you want to read everything Hornby's written, I'm still not sure you'd want to read it. While it definitely has good moments, I personally did not enjoy it much.
Rating:
Summary: I'm shocked and amazed this has such a low star rating
Review: I thought this book was fabulous - it was the first Nick Hornby book that I read and I like it just as much, if not more, than his other books. It is cleverly written, hillarious in subtle satire, and interesting. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Stop Putting It Down
Review: I typically finish every book I start, no matter how good or bad it is, hoping to find some redeeming quality or to take something beneficial away from it. "How to Be Good" is one of the handful of exceptions that I've allowed myself.
I really tried to get into this, but I found the characters and the plot not necessarily unlikeable, just totally uninteresting. I have no clue why this book was so acclaimed by so many different sources, and was so bored by everthing about it that I couldn't even bring myself to read more than 1/2 in order to find out.
The characters come off as flat, humorless, and boring. It was impossible to entertain any interest in their well-being or in the plot that painstakingly developed. And after investing so much determination in traversing through the dry realities of the failing marriage of the protagonists, the introduction of the medicine man/faith healer/swami was so fantastical and so inconsistent it was almost insulting. At this point I just became so fed up and worn out that I realized that sometimes, it's just not worth it.
"How to Be Good", despite its title, more appropriately conveys how a novel can just be bad. Period.
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