Triple Platinum: Fever Pitch / High Fidelity / About a Boy
2 journalers for this copy...
This is a compilation of Hornby's first three books: Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, and About a Boy. I greatly enjoyed the movie that was made of Hornby's Fever Pitch, so I got this to also read the book. Sad to say, its imposing size has kept me afraid to start reading it, but now I'm finally making a decision to get to it soon.
Since this title is a collection of three unrelated books, I'll also be writing journal entries (and giving ratings) for each book separately. Later readers, feel free to follow my example.
Fever Pitch is an autobiographical story of Hornby's twenty-three years as a fan of the Arsenal Football Club, from when his father first took him to see Arsenal play to the end of the 90/91 season. The book is written as a series of few-page commentaries tied to specific games during the period, connected to Hornby's life at the time or to something he wants to say about being an Arsenal fan (he specifically points out that he's not really a football fan, but an Arsenal fan). During the period when Hornby wrote the book, Liverpool's dominance in the 80s was already fading and Manchester United's rise to the top in the 90s had not yet begun.
As a Finnish football fan who grew up in the 80s, this book felt like being back there again. The Saturday afternoon English football game on Finnish TV was already then an institution, with many Finns being almost as fanatical about their favorite English teams as the English fans. I can easily understand how Hornby became a rabid Arsenal fan after seeing just one game of theirs, having become a Crystal Palace fan for similar reasons (though never as fanatical, but even now, when I don't even follow the English league much anymore, I still look at how the “Eagles” are doing).
Hornby's fan-ness also comes out in the way he relates his life with Arsenal performance. Based on many chapters of the book, it appears that Hornby's life hit its high and low points concurrently with Arsenal. Most probably there is some confirmation bias going on, but this also reflects how a fan easily sees things in relation with his team and remembers better how his team did on particular days than what happened in his life (like in the case where Hornby puts down his student by barraging him with questions for suspecting he is not a real Arsenal fan).
The analysis of football fandom that Hornby provides is also very insightful. As a well-educated person, he is able to articulate his thoughts very well and to dig deeper into what the various things around fandom mean, and as a fanatic Arsenal supporter, he gets an inside look into the fan mindset that would be lacking in an outsider commentary. I was especially struck by how it is easy to just go with the flow in a group, doing things that wouldn't seem appropriate alone, like insulting and provoking the opposing team's supporters, as I have really observed that happen to me as well at the stadium.
For any sports fan who has a passing acquaintance with English football, this book should be good reading. In particular, the “high point” of the book a bit before the end and its analysis brings out the mindset of a fan at the time of success very well. It would have been interesting if the book had been written a few years later, to get a look at what Hornby thinks of the Premier League and all the commercialization that has happened in recent years. There is already a little of that, when Hornby laments the steep rise in ticket prices, but the 90s would probably have brought those kinds of thoughts more to the forefront.
It would be interesting to get reactions to this book from people who haven't closely followed English football, or football at all. I suspect some parts may be incomprehensible, as Hornby makes many forward references without bothering to explain them at the time, evidently assuming that his readers know all the same things he does. To be honest, I didn't catch everything either, but at least I still recognize the “big” things, like, say, Heysel and Hillsborough, which appear without explanation quite early already.
Fever Pitch is an autobiographical story of Hornby's twenty-three years as a fan of the Arsenal Football Club, from when his father first took him to see Arsenal play to the end of the 90/91 season. The book is written as a series of few-page commentaries tied to specific games during the period, connected to Hornby's life at the time or to something he wants to say about being an Arsenal fan (he specifically points out that he's not really a football fan, but an Arsenal fan). During the period when Hornby wrote the book, Liverpool's dominance in the 80s was already fading and Manchester United's rise to the top in the 90s had not yet begun.
As a Finnish football fan who grew up in the 80s, this book felt like being back there again. The Saturday afternoon English football game on Finnish TV was already then an institution, with many Finns being almost as fanatical about their favorite English teams as the English fans. I can easily understand how Hornby became a rabid Arsenal fan after seeing just one game of theirs, having become a Crystal Palace fan for similar reasons (though never as fanatical, but even now, when I don't even follow the English league much anymore, I still look at how the “Eagles” are doing).
Hornby's fan-ness also comes out in the way he relates his life with Arsenal performance. Based on many chapters of the book, it appears that Hornby's life hit its high and low points concurrently with Arsenal. Most probably there is some confirmation bias going on, but this also reflects how a fan easily sees things in relation with his team and remembers better how his team did on particular days than what happened in his life (like in the case where Hornby puts down his student by barraging him with questions for suspecting he is not a real Arsenal fan).
The analysis of football fandom that Hornby provides is also very insightful. As a well-educated person, he is able to articulate his thoughts very well and to dig deeper into what the various things around fandom mean, and as a fanatic Arsenal supporter, he gets an inside look into the fan mindset that would be lacking in an outsider commentary. I was especially struck by how it is easy to just go with the flow in a group, doing things that wouldn't seem appropriate alone, like insulting and provoking the opposing team's supporters, as I have really observed that happen to me as well at the stadium.
For any sports fan who has a passing acquaintance with English football, this book should be good reading. In particular, the “high point” of the book a bit before the end and its analysis brings out the mindset of a fan at the time of success very well. It would have been interesting if the book had been written a few years later, to get a look at what Hornby thinks of the Premier League and all the commercialization that has happened in recent years. There is already a little of that, when Hornby laments the steep rise in ticket prices, but the 90s would probably have brought those kinds of thoughts more to the forefront.
It would be interesting to get reactions to this book from people who haven't closely followed English football, or football at all. I suspect some parts may be incomprehensible, as Hornby makes many forward references without bothering to explain them at the time, evidently assuming that his readers know all the same things he does. To be honest, I didn't catch everything either, but at least I still recognize the “big” things, like, say, Heysel and Hillsborough, which appear without explanation quite early already.
High Fidelity tells of Rob, an owner of a small record store whose girlfriend has just left him. He begins the story by recounting five times he got dumped before that all felt worse than this time, evidently as an attempt to make himself feel better.
The book is easy reading, but I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters one bit. Rob is a stupid annoying little git, and his friends are even worse. The women are all seen through Rob's distorting prism, making them both uninteresting and scarce.
There isn't much of a plot to this book. It's more of a slice of life: some things happen to normal people, some issues get resolved, some don't. Usually I like these kinds of stories, and Hornby is the kind of writer who can pull them off, but this one, Hornby's first actual novel, is still somewhat weak, and Rob really really annoyed me almost all through the reading, so I can't say I enjoyed it very much.
The book is easy reading, but I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters one bit. Rob is a stupid annoying little git, and his friends are even worse. The women are all seen through Rob's distorting prism, making them both uninteresting and scarce.
There isn't much of a plot to this book. It's more of a slice of life: some things happen to normal people, some issues get resolved, some don't. Usually I like these kinds of stories, and Hornby is the kind of writer who can pull them off, but this one, Hornby's first actual novel, is still somewhat weak, and Rob really really annoyed me almost all through the reading, so I can't say I enjoyed it very much.
About a Boy is about Marcus, a very literal-minded 12-year old son of Fiona, a single mother, and Will, a shallow guy who in the beginning of the novel realizes that single mothers don't seem to be too picky in their choice of boyfriends. So Will invents himself a two-year old son to be able to go to single parents' meetings to pick up women. Through that, he encounters Marcus and the two develop a strange friendship. The story is written by alternating chapters from Marcus's and Will's viewpoints.
I liked this one a lot better than High Fidelity. While Will is similar to Rob in his attitude to life, the Marcus chapters provide some balance so that, even in the beginning, Will's personality does not shine through too annoyingly. The other difference is that, unlike Rob, Will actually matures somewhat, mostly by his relationship with Marcus but also by coming into contact with Fiona and his circle of friends.
The Marcus-Will relationship is really the core of this novel, and Hornby pulls it off extremely well. Ostensibly, Will is the adult and Marcus the child, but since Marcus is always very serious and has had to take some responsibility at home, and Will is still something of a boy at heart, the adult-child dynamic is occasionally twisted around, but even then it still shows realistically that Marcus is a child and too immature to truly be the adult in the relationship. Primarily, Will is trying to get Marcus fit in at school, since he was one of the “cool” guys and understands what it takes, but were Will and Marcus the same age, Will would most probably be one of the kids who bully Marcus and nowhere close to being his friend. The age difference lets Will be the wise old mentor, a role he's certainly never played before, but imparting his wisdom to Marcus leads to him learning a few things as well.
I'd already known that Hornby's novels improved in time, but I have to say this is probably the best Hornby novel I've read. I'm reminded of what Anthony Burgess writes about his A Clockwork Orange: “There is [...] not much point in writing a novel unless you can show the possibility of moral transformation, or an increase in wisdom, operating in your chief character or characters.” This novel is, in different ways, a coming-of-age story for both Marcus and Will.
I liked this one a lot better than High Fidelity. While Will is similar to Rob in his attitude to life, the Marcus chapters provide some balance so that, even in the beginning, Will's personality does not shine through too annoyingly. The other difference is that, unlike Rob, Will actually matures somewhat, mostly by his relationship with Marcus but also by coming into contact with Fiona and his circle of friends.
The Marcus-Will relationship is really the core of this novel, and Hornby pulls it off extremely well. Ostensibly, Will is the adult and Marcus the child, but since Marcus is always very serious and has had to take some responsibility at home, and Will is still something of a boy at heart, the adult-child dynamic is occasionally twisted around, but even then it still shows realistically that Marcus is a child and too immature to truly be the adult in the relationship. Primarily, Will is trying to get Marcus fit in at school, since he was one of the “cool” guys and understands what it takes, but were Will and Marcus the same age, Will would most probably be one of the kids who bully Marcus and nowhere close to being his friend. The age difference lets Will be the wise old mentor, a role he's certainly never played before, but imparting his wisdom to Marcus leads to him learning a few things as well.
I'd already known that Hornby's novels improved in time, but I have to say this is probably the best Hornby novel I've read. I'm reminded of what Anthony Burgess writes about his A Clockwork Orange: “There is [...] not much point in writing a novel unless you can show the possibility of moral transformation, or an increase in wisdom, operating in your chief character or characters.” This novel is, in different ways, a coming-of-age story for both Marcus and Will.
Going out as a “bookloop” to chirel.
Thank you, Jaakko196,
I feel a bit silly for asking you to send me this book, since I'd already read About a Boy and I just couldn't finish Fever Pitch.
Fever Pitch: if I'd done some researching before putting this on my wish list, I'd propably have left it out. Too much football. And it's not just the football, and the fact that I barely understood the terminologi or recognised the teams, but it was ancient football and real matches. I started feeling weird, when I first had the thought that the book might not be fiction at all. I checked it from the internet, and it is said to be a true story. Somehow that made a difference. It would have been OK for me to read a fictive football book, but a true story wasn't that interesting. The short glimpses of life between football were well fritten, fun and interesting, but there were too few of them to keep me reading. Strange.
High Fidelity:
I liked the book a lot. It was very easy to read especially after I decided to take a break from the Fever Pitch. I like Hornby's sense of humor. The characters were real, sometimes even painfully so. And I liked the ending and the moral or theme or whatever it should be called. I feel this book is about finding yourself and being true to yourself. Things that can be both difficult and scary. A good book.
You can read what I tought of About a Boy here http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1562885 .
Otan kirjan Kesäpäiville.
I feel a bit silly for asking you to send me this book, since I'd already read About a Boy and I just couldn't finish Fever Pitch.
Fever Pitch: if I'd done some researching before putting this on my wish list, I'd propably have left it out. Too much football. And it's not just the football, and the fact that I barely understood the terminologi or recognised the teams, but it was ancient football and real matches. I started feeling weird, when I first had the thought that the book might not be fiction at all. I checked it from the internet, and it is said to be a true story. Somehow that made a difference. It would have been OK for me to read a fictive football book, but a true story wasn't that interesting. The short glimpses of life between football were well fritten, fun and interesting, but there were too few of them to keep me reading. Strange.
High Fidelity:
I liked the book a lot. It was very easy to read especially after I decided to take a break from the Fever Pitch. I like Hornby's sense of humor. The characters were real, sometimes even painfully so. And I liked the ending and the moral or theme or whatever it should be called. I feel this book is about finding yourself and being true to yourself. Things that can be both difficult and scary. A good book.
You can read what I tought of About a Boy here http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1562885 .
Otan kirjan Kesäpäiville.
This is back home now. Thanks, chirel, for bringing it, and too bad you couldn't finish Fever Pitch. Maybe one really needs to have followed English football for it to resonate, as I kind of suspected.
I'm marking this Available, but it's very unlikely that I will mail it out again.
I'm marking this Available, but it's very unlikely that I will mail it out again.
