With How to Be Good – A Book Review

This is the third book I read by Nick Hornby. And ironically-or conveniently - enough this is the first of his books that I like. The book is narrated by a 30-something year old woman who is tired of her grumpy husband, and wishes he would change. Or that the marriage would end.  And her husband does change but she soon resents his new found moral code as she was used to being the "good" one.

Hornby has such a magical way of writing even the mundane events into interesting plot points and this is what got me through his other books. This one is certainly no exception. The book is short and sweet, there are no complications in the plot, no unnecessarily complex flash backs. Everything just flows nicely.
But what makes this book my Hornby-Favorite is that the characters are so incredibly relatable and complex. Their relationship grew and progressed in such a charming way I could barely keep my eyes clear.  Frankly, I became genuinely invested in their lives. I wanted to know what happens. Their behavior was consistent, justified, in-character… so to speak. They felt like real characters and that is very rare! The story felt like it was real. Beyond any doubt these are events that could genuinely happen. No happy-sappy or melodrama.

All this just makes the downfall of this book all the more irritating; there is no resolution. When I was reading the last page I kept desperately thinking "come on, drop dead, set the house on fire, go crazy, something, anything" but no. The words ended but the story didn't. That’s the only way I can explain it. And I guess it makes sense. Since these characters exist, this is only a chunk of their lives. There is no resolution and a neatly packed ending tied-up-in-string, because there never is one in reality. Events keep on going, and life keeps on happening.

But I really want resolution. I want to make sure the characters are alright. I want to make sure they find themselves, and fall back in love with each other.  Hornby managed to create a friendship between these characters and myself but I'm not allowed to see how they turned out. I can't call or text or drop in, because he didn't finish their story. The words ended but their story didn't, like reality, and realty sucks.