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High Fidelity (1995)

by Nick Hornby

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
14,851196352 (3.92)248
Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? Rob seeks refuge in the company of the offbeat clerks at his store, who endlessly review their top five films (Reservoir Dogs...); top five Elvis Costello songs ("Alison"...); top five episodes of Cheers (the one where Woody sang his stupid song to Kelly...). Rob tries dating a singer whose rendition of "Baby, I Love Your Way" makes him cry. But maybe it's just that he's always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think (awful as it sounds) that life as an episode of thirtysomething, with all the kids and marriages and barbecues and k.d. lang CD's that this implies, might not be so bad.… (more)
  1. 70
    About a Boy by Nick Hornby (Maurizio70)
  2. 10
    The Best a Man Can Get by John O'Farrell (alzo)
  3. 10
    Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn (lampbane)
    lampbane: Another story where music and love are interconnected.
  4. 10
    Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper (SimoneA)
    SimoneA: Both funny and enjoyable books about a young guy rethinking his life.
  5. 00
    Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting by Brett Milano (Sr_Moreno)
  6. 00
    Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me by Martin Millar (AsYouKnow_Bob)
  7. 00
    The Song is You by Arthur Phillips (elenchus)
    elenchus: Similar taste in music by the protagonists, but a very different novel. Both very good.
  8. 00
    Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman (chazzard)
  9. 01
    You Comma Idiot by Doug Harris (ShelfMonkey)
  10. 01
    Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: Both are introspective and character-based novels about a witty and music-obsessed young man suffering from relationship problems. Readers who enjoy savvy, music-literate fiction will enjoy the hip, colloquial prose and rich detail concerning popular music.… (more)
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» See also 248 mentions

English (182)  Spanish (5)  Italian (3)  German (2)  Norwegian (2)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Danish (1)  All languages (196)
Showing 1-5 of 182 (next | show all)
I loved the movie, but I'm starting to think John Cusack might be why. I didn't like any of the characters in the book and I didn't feel like any of Rob's justifications for some of the things he did made him easier to understand or more likeable. However, I always like stories where people talk about the inner implications of being confronted with change so I did enjoy reading it despite the failed attempt at making a selfish man appear decent. ( )
  jskeltz | Nov 23, 2023 |
I liked it much better than the movie because it is fuller, more fleshed-out about why things are happening and what people are feeling. The fun and silly stuff from the movie is still there, and still funny, and somehow better because of the balance with the emotional stuff. ( )
  blueskygreentrees | Jul 30, 2023 |
I enjoyed it especially since I had seen the film years ago. Hornsby is a good storyteller though it seemed a bit slow to me. ( )
  Jonathan5 | Feb 20, 2023 |
i can't believe it took me so long to read this book. I'm obsessed with John cusack so I discovered the movie as I own all of his movies and fell in love with it instantly as it combined two of my favorite things, him and music. but even though this is one of the closest book to movie conversions I've come across, the book is laid out brilliantly. I'm not going to rave about all the bits I loved just read the damn thing because it's only 200ish pages. p.s. I still dislike Laura. ( )
  SabethaDanes | Jan 30, 2023 |
Since I saw the movie before reading the book, this one held no surprises for me. The movie's an almost perfect adaptation of the book (not surprisingly, since the narration and the plot are pretty straightforward and very suitable as screenplay material).

It's very funny and any male can definitely see himself reflected in some (not all, or you'd be a bastard) of Rob's attitudes. It's insightful in its best passages, but not quite moving as Fever Pitch, the other Hornby book I read. It seems like, for as much as Nick puts of himself in the page, that High Fidelity still has a lot of the artist's pretense to show himself (or his alter-ego) as cool. You may argue that Rob isn't cool anymore, but I think his lifestyle definitely has some of that wish-fulfillment every office worker dreams about (i.e, not having a job, doing your own thing, revert to adolescence). It seems to me that Fever Pitch is much more raw and bereft of the "cool" imposture, showing more of the actual person behind the story. There's a lot of self-deprecation in High Fidelity, and it makes for its funniest moments.

As someone said, this book is like "guy-lit", that is, it ought to occupy the same place in the commercial book world as "chick-lit". Maybe it's because it deals with feelings regarding modern relationships, and it replaces shoes and accesories with records. After seeing the "quality" of chick-lit, this comparison would do a great disservice to this book, but it may help anyway to let prospective readers know what to expect, since it's not high-brow and it definitely deals with feelings and is hard to categorize as any genre in particular. The best I can do to inscribe it in a genre also serves as a good description: "A coming of age story, with the character's own selfish, adolescent self as the enemy to vanquish"
( )
  marsgeverson | Jan 12, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 182 (next | show all)
Happily, Hornby does not rely on pop-cultural allusion to limn his characters' inner lives, but uses it instead to create a rich, wry backdrop for them... Hornby is as fine an analyst as he is a funny man, and his book is a true original.
added by Shortride | editTime, Gina Bellafante (Oct 9, 1995)
 
Mr. Hornby captures the loneliness and childishness of adult life with such precision and wit that you'll find yourself nodding and smiling.
added by Shortride | editThe New York Times Book Review, Mark Jolly (Sep 3, 1995)
 

» Add other authors (24 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Hornby, Nickprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Drechsler, ClaraTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hellmann, HaraldTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
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Epigraph
Dedication
For Virginia
First words
My desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order:
1) Alison Ashworth
2) Penny Hardwick
3) Jackie Allen
4) Charlie Nicholson
5) Sarah Kendrew.
Quotations
People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands—literally thousands—of songs about broken hearts and rejection and misery and loss. The unhappiest people I know, romantically speaking, are the ones who like pop music the most.
"Wenn man sich überlegt, was beim Mann alles schiefgehen kann! Da gibt es das tut-sich-gar-nichts-Problem, das Tut-sich-zu-viel-zu-schnell-Problem, das Kläglicher-Hänger-nach-vielversprechendem-Start-Problem, das Größe-spielt-keine-Rolle-außer-bei-mir-Problem, das Es-ihr-nicht-besorgen-Problem ... und worum haben sich Frauen zu sorgen? Das bißchen Zellulitis? Willkommen im club. Ein kleines Wie-war-ich-wohl? Dito.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
This is the book; do not combine with the film.
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References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? Rob seeks refuge in the company of the offbeat clerks at his store, who endlessly review their top five films (Reservoir Dogs...); top five Elvis Costello songs ("Alison"...); top five episodes of Cheers (the one where Woody sang his stupid song to Kelly...). Rob tries dating a singer whose rendition of "Baby, I Love Your Way" makes him cry. But maybe it's just that he's always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think (awful as it sounds) that life as an episode of thirtysomething, with all the kids and marriages and barbecues and k.d. lang CD's that this implies, might not be so bad.

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Book description
Recently dumped by his wealthy girlfriend, record store owner Rob Fleming finds himself in financial trouble and sets out on a pilgrimage to ask his former girlfriends where their relationships went wrong and to learn where his life went off track.
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Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0140293469, 0141037350

 

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