Couldn't finish it, but maybe you can?

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing book sometime this week to fellow Bookcrosser, OneMorePage.

Got this in the mail today, in trade for "My Sister's Keeper". Thank you Debbie1000! This one is actually for my husband, who asked me to track down some Nick Hornby books for him. But I know I will read it too - I love Nick Hornby!

My husband and I had the same reaction to this book - not his best work, but still an enjoyable book.

From the back cover:
"In his boldest and bravest novel to date, author Nick Hornby enters the heart, mind, and soul of a woman who, confronted by her husband's sudden and extreme spiritual conversion, is forced to learn "how to be good" - for better or for worse."

I was surprised at how well Hornby wrote the female viewpoint (for an author famous for his 'lad lit') and I also like that both the husband and the wife had good and bad points. (To be honest, towards the end I didn't think the wife had much good left in her... but that is a different discussion.)

There is almost no more wicked wit than Nick Hornby. Consider this paragraph - the wife, frustrated beyond reason at her husband's conversion, goes to a dull service at an Anglican church one Sunday morning. The pastor talks about those who are 'artificially good.' She thinks:

"Ha. That is more like it. 'Artificially good.' I like that phrase, and I will throw it in somebody's face at the first available opportunity. This is why I have moved out: because of the artificiality of David's behavior...I am coming round to the Christian viewpoint... I decide, on the spot, to let God into my heart, in the hope that my newfound faith can somehow be used as a vicious weapon in the marital war. It is true that not everyone discovers the Lord in this way; some would argue that it is distinctly unChristian, in fact, to become a convert in the hope that it might really upset somebody. But God, famously, moves in mysterious ways."

SPOILER ALERT: do not read the next comments unless you don't mind learning the end of the book:

I must say, the last line of the book really surprised both of us. The couple comes to something of a truce, they seem to be able to live with their situation, and if not necessarily destined to be the happiest couple alive, then at least able to function. But then here are the last few lines of the book:
"My family, I think, just that. And then, I can do this. I can live this life. I can, I can. It's a spark I want to cherish, a splutter of life in the flat battery; but just at the wrong moment I catch a glimpse of the night sky behind David, and I can see that there's nothing out there at all."

HUNH??

ON the one hand, I admire Hornby for not wrapping everything up neatly in a Meg Ryan movie kind of way. They remain complex people who may or may not make it. Still - it was a dark ending!

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to hfitz5051, the winner of the 6th Tiara contest. Congratulations!

Thank you!

This was the only thing I have read by Nick Hornby. I thought it was very good, although I do agree about the ending. It left me feeling very down.

I'll be releasing this into the wild soon!


To be released as part of the 2008 Leap Into the Wild 366 Challenge!

RELEASE NOTES:

Left at Lampe Family Chiropractic for the 2008 Leap Into the Wild 366 Challenge!

I found this at Lampe Family Chiropractic today. Hi, Hfitz. I wonder if I have seen you there.

couldn't get into the book so I will make it available

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

off to meagan2112 as a RABCK because I am back on line.

received in the mail today. Will get around to reading it soon.