Juliet, Naked

I don’t know how he does it, but there’s something about a Nick Hornby book that so hooks me that I feel part of the story – I can always identify with some of the characters.

Juliet Naked is the story of a lost rock star, a completist fan and his partner. Annie and Duncan have reached that point in their lives where their shared love of the reclusive US rock star Tucker Crowe isn’t enough any longer. Duncan, one of the world’s foremost Croweologists is obsessed by the man, his music, his lyrics, his concerts; Annie’s interest is waning – she needs more than this from life – a baby is at the top of the list. Meanwhile Tucker had walked out of a tour some years ago, leaving the world of rock’n'roll to his fans. He has show more been living quietly since, raising a brood of alienated children all by different mothers. Ever the commitment-phobe, he is gradually realising that his latest relationship with the mother of his six year old kid Jackson won’t last either.

The release of the demo sessions from Crowe’s best album ‘Juliet’ as ‘Juliet, Naked’ that is the catalyst for change in all of their lives. Duncan raves about it, Annie hates it preferring the honed final version, and unusually for her she posts a review on the net and Tucker reads it and emails her. This schism is driving a wedge ever further between Duncan and Annie and when Duncan is unfaithful they split; anyway Annie is becoming rather entranced by her growing virtual relationship with Crowe, who will come into both their lives in reality soon…

Hornby’s big themes of lives wasted, mid-life crises, that families require work, and obsession are worked out in his characteristic fluent and witty style with some moments of pathos thrown in. He is sympathetic to all of them, yet doesn’t let them get away with it, they have to suffer the consequences of their actions. He knows them, understands their needs and obsessions (as I felt do I!), and this makes for an engaging and satisfying read with all ends tied up neatly. As a companion piece to the wonderful High Fidelity, if you liked that you’ll certainly enjoy Juliet, Naked which could be seen as the next chapters in the lives of Rob and Laura. The main characters here being that bit olde,r and needing to do that last bit of growing up with their mid-life crises, make this a wistful and bittersweet book which may be of less interest to bright young things, but will surely resonate with more mature music fans!

(8.5/10) I got given this book, but would have bought it anyway! show less

Tucker Crowe mysteriously walks away from rock n' roll while touring with his successful album, Juliet. For twenty years, he's hidden away, living a recluse life. All that's left are a group of dedicated aficionados, who people the Internet, parsing his lyrics and analyzing his life and music for other influences. Chief among these is blogger Duncan, considered a Crowe expert. Duncan also teaches at a small community college in Gooleness, a dilapidated English seaside town, where he lives with his girlfriend, Annie. Annie finds their life together every bit as shabby and tired as their town.

The novel opens as Duncan receives a soon to be released acoustic CD, Juliet, Naked. Atwitter over this first news and music from Crowe in decades, show more Duncan immediately posts a glowing and rhapsodic review on the main Crowe website. Annie, hardly a cultist, puts up her first post on the site, taking an opposite but thoughtful view. Amazingly, Tucker Crowe himself emails her, starting a relationship that moves from 'pen pals' to ...

Hornby's tale resonates on many levels, touching on parenthood, relationships, redemption and fulfillment (or lack of it.) For me, more thought provoking was his riffs on the role of music and art for the artists and the audience. Readers of High Fidelity and About a Boy will know that this is not unfamiliar ground for Hornby. The references to Bruce Springsteen I found particularly telling - related to a Boss fanatic, and having read the fanblog, Backstreets, I know firsthand the extremes to which his followers go in wringing every last ounce of meaning from his every utterance and lyric. Tucker Crowe's album, Juliet, has been misinterpreted completely beyond it's orginal intent.

I'm sure that this isn't just a musical phenomenon. In college English Lit courses, as professors droned about hidden meaning and imputed tenuous influences, I often wondered if Shakespeare or Keats actually considered any of this. More importantly, though, does it matter? Does art need an audience to be art? Once art is bequeathed to the audience, what role does it play in adding to it's meaning and import? Heady stuff to ponder. Thanks Mr. Hornby for the thought provoking and entertaining book. show less

Juliet is about a middle-aged couple, Duncan and Annie, who live together in a small English town. Duncan has been obsessed with a retired musician, Tucker Crowe, for decades. When he and Annie break up, she ends up connecting with Tucker.

This book was a perfect Hornby novel to me. It deals with music and troubled adult relationships, which are, in my opinion, Hornby's two greatest strengths when it comes to subject matter.

He writes from the point-of-view of all three characters, making the story even richer. They deal with feelings of failure, hope, and thoughts that they've wasted their lives. The books just rang true somehow. Hornby has a way of saying things we all think in a way that makes them seem profound. Juliet, Naked has show more its flaws, but I would rank it as one of his best. show less

I avoided reading the synopsis for this book until I was nearly closed to finishing it; I'm not sure why. But there's something to be said for not knowing what to expect. I started out with the expectation of a book that would pick apart the end of a relationship, but ended up with something a bit more nuanced - and a lot more enjoyable - than I would have expected.

There are the little details about relationships, life, and music that I enjoy about Hornby's work. For example, he talks about the elitism about one's musical tastes that would cause someone to be disappointed when his track listings are automatically pre-populated by his musical software, and the desire to discover something obscure and different. He also talks about the show more obsessions of fandom and the gray area it shares with some elements of academia. He also thankfully spends a lot of time in the heads of these three main characters, and the results are witty and endearing.

Those of you who have read this book know that there is some impertinence (some 'cheek' if you will) to writing a review about a book that in part makes fun of people who go online to share their often wretched opinions about things to a community of people with shared interests. But here it is.

Just as one of the protagonists, Tucker, is quick to point out he is no Shakespeare or Leonard Cohen, and that he should just be taken as what he is, I would argue the same for this book. It is engrossing and light and enjoyable, and I would probably read it again. Parts of it made me literally laugh out loud, with the kind of recognition of the human condition that I like to flip over and over in my head because it's fun to do. As it stands, though, the parts of the human condition that Hornby graces us with here are not earth-shattering: They are nothing more (or less) trivial than the arrogant jerks who frequent many a website comment section, the observations children can make that are so profound simply because they are so innocent and tactless, and the trials of growing older, falling in and out of love, and why Morrissey fans can be really monomaniacal. Overall, a lovely and entertaining ride. show less

Delightful. My new favorite of Hornby's books. He consistently manages to find that sweet spot between geekery and somewhat-more-normal. He clearly loves his characters for their quirks, not in spite of them.
And he's aging well, his leads get older and have the problems of late middle age along with their obsessive interests from youth. Well, the male characters do. The women are generally better centered and better-rounded.
There's a lot of wish fulfillment: no one has ever posted anything on the internet without at least a passing thought of how cool it would be if someone special noticed. There's a lot of the messiness of modern blended families that was so charming in About a Boy.
A warm, snuggly blanket of a book.

Special shout-out of show more gratitude to the libraries and their electronic access. Instant gratification.

Library copy show less

Annie and Duncan have been together for 15 years. While their relationship has been basically happy (or at least not too bad), Annie has recently begun questioning her life choices. Does she really love Duncan, or has she just been wasting her time? Duncan himself is no help; he’s entirely focused on an obscure ‘80s singer-songwriter named Tucker Crowe, with whom he and maybe 100 other people are obsessed. Tucker’s last album, Juliet, was widely acknowledged as one of the best breakup albums of all time, but it was followed by 20 years of silence. That is, until Tucker releases an acoustic version of his greatest album called Juliet, Naked. Annie’s and Duncan’s different responses to the album prompt Annie to voice her show more thoughts on one of Tucker’s fan sites. When Tucker astonishingly responds, all three of their lives change in unexpected ways.

I really like Nick Hornby’s novels, and he’s at his best when he writes about music. High Fidelity remains my favorite of his books, but this one is a close second. It’s hard for me to realize that Tucker Crowe is not a real person, because the story of his life and career is so believable, and it mirrors stories of a lot of real-life musicians. I found myself wishing that Juliet were a real album; if it existed, I’d buy it! Annie and Duncan are also realistic characters, and I sympathized with all three protagonists (even Duncan, who’s kind of a loser). I loved the novel’s take on musicians and their fans, especially in the age of the internet, but the novel’s biggest strength is its depiction of the three main characters as they search for meaning in their lives. I’d definitely recommend this book, especially to music lovers. show less

By far the best Hornby novel I have read. It's wryly funny, as you'd expect, but it also is more mature. These are not the young, selfish people of so many of his other books, making mistakes, acting like children and being selfish -- and worst of all, knowing they are doing these things and not caring enough to change their behavior. The characters of Juliet, Naked already have made the major mistakes of life. This book is about people straightening out, making amends, smoothing the road, and hoping for something better than they have, and perhaps what they deserve, from past behavior. The characters shared some of my anxieties and sadness about life, and therefore, I also related to them more than past books. This book has real heart show more and tenderness, and the characters earn both the positive and negatives that they get. -cg show less