Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is the guy version of Bridget Jones’s Diary, only even funnier.

Rob, the slacker hero, mopes around his used record store, obsessing on the girlfriend who just dumped him and on all his prior failed relationships. Fanatically opinionated, phobic about commitment, and neurotic to the core, Rob is the Everyman of the post-sexual revolution era. There is a little something of Rob in all bad boyfriends and good husbands, which is what makes him so appealing.

In keeping with the theme of the book, my Top Five Favorite Lines from High Fidelity, in the order of appearance:

Discussing his first real girlfriend: “Sometimes I got so bored of trying to touch her breasts that I would try to touch between her legs, a gesture that had a sort of self-parodying wit about it: it was like trying to borrow a fiver, getting turned down, and asking to borrow fifty quid instead.”

Discussing teenage romance in general: “Attack and defense, invasion and repulsion . . . it was as if breasts were little pieces of property that had been unlawfully annexed by the opposite sex – they were rightfully ours and we wanted them back.”

“They’re as close to being mad as makes no difference.”

Discussing obscure bands: “[S]omeone with a cult following which could arrive together in the same car.”

“[M]y friends don’t seem to be friends at all but people whose phone numbers I haven’t lost.”

Why, why, why did I wait so long to read this book? If I had read it when it came out in 1995, I could have already re-read it a couple of times. Now I have to wait at least a few years to enjoy it fresh and I don’t want to wait. ( )

I'm not really sure how to rate this book, because for various reasons a lot of it resonated with me perhaps more strongly than it might have had I picked it up next month, next week, or even tomorrow. For now I will give it four stars, because I think any kind of resonance in a work of fiction indicates that there is some truth in it, and also because the author makes two or three very astute and very well-stated points about human nature. And finally because I enjoyed reading it, which is something I think a lot of reviewers forget to take into consideration, but it's no less important than any of the other things reviewers talk about.

It was an interesting read because the main character is on many levels an unreliable narrator, and part of the book is more or less about how he realizes this. It was an interesting journey to make in the head of a character who had many traits I share and identify with, but also many traits that baffled me. The book treads perilously close to a line of self-indulgence that could have made it terrible, but Hornby's style of writing saves it from crossing that line by not belaboring points he does not have to. The narrator, while sometimes irritating, is ultimately someone in whom the reader can see sympathetic echoes of him- or herself, rather than someone the reader desires to hit on the head with a two-by-four and have done with it.

This one will be particularly interesting to reread a year or two down the road from a different place in my life. We'll see if it holds up. ( )

High Fidelity is a fun, quick read. My husband likes this one best of the Hornby books he has read. My opinion is that it is light, entertaining, and forgettable. May be more of a "guy book". ( )

What if ... your latest relationship has just ended, you run a failing record shop with two 'losers', and you begin to wonder if your life went wrong somewhere along the way ... what do you do next? In Nick Hornby's world there are only two choices really : you could decide into what logical sequence to re-sequence your CD collection, or to look back and review all the "relationships" in your life, starting with a stolen kiss in the park by the swings when you were only 13.

Rob, anti-hero of Hornby's novel does the latter (or probably both, given what we soon find out about him). He addresses a mental letter to his latest ex, Laura, explaining to her just why she doesn't make his Top 5 Break Ups (there are an awful lot of Top 5s in High Fidelity). He's been hurt, over and over again. Laura just doesn't match the awfulness that his love life has been up to now.

From this point, we find that "the gentleman doth protest too much" as he sets out to regain Laura's affections, while keeping his business afloat (with little help from Barry and Dick, the former shouting out of the shop any no-hoper who doesn't endorse the latest unheard-of rock band that is this week's definition of cool), befriending and then bedding American songstress Marie La Salle, while all the time doing his best to flee from the twin horrors of "change" and "commitment".

This flight from manhood is liberally peppered with Top 5s (Top Five Bands Who Will Have To Be Shot Come The Musical Revolution, anyone?), and Rob does eventually succeed in making some breakthroughs in self discovery before an ending that wraps things up a little too neatly perhaps, but satisfyingly.

High Fidelity carries Hornby's gift for good dialogue and wryly self-deprecating humour, even if his musical taste is fired directly at us in a manner that is both didactic and dogmatic. I have never apologised for being a Genesis fan, and Hornby won't make me start apologising now - I just wish he had not made me squirm on such matters.

It's a good novel, insightful into male / female relationships, an understanding of both the male and female psyche, strong dialogue, and wryly observant of modern life(styles). So, you don't have to love music to enjoy this book (but it helps!) ( )

Rob's not the most reliable narrator in that he's a very authentic voice and so believable. He never understood why Laura liked him in the first place, because he has some depression and self-esteem issues, so the reader isn't entirely sure either. But, Hornby is an author that treats the modern male well. He explores issues of masculinity and relationships from the male point of view, while not resorting to hyper-masculinity.

Rob is funny, the story is good, and all the music snobbery is great--make sure you have some most excellent music playing while you read.

see all my reviews: www.tushuguan.blogspot.com ( )