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Review
If this book was a record, we would be calling it an instant classic. Because that is what it is (Guardian )
It will give enormous pleasure at the same time as expanding, in a small but worthwhile way, the range of English literature (Independent on Sunday )
Leaves you believing not only in the redemptive power of music but above all the redemptive power of love. Funny and wise, sweet and true (Independent )
A triumphant first novel. True to life, very funny, and moving (Financial Times )
Very funny and extremely cleverly observed (Mail on Sunday )
Funny and compulsive (GQ )
It will give enormous pleasure at the same time as expanding, in a small but worthwhile way, the range of English literature (Independent on Sunday )
Leaves you believing not only in the redemptive power of music but above all the redemptive power of love. Funny and wise, sweet and true (Independent )
A triumphant first novel. True to life, very funny, and moving (Financial Times )
Very funny and extremely cleverly observed (Mail on Sunday )
Funny and compulsive (GQ )
Product Description
Do you know your desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups?
Rob does. He keeps a list, in fact. But Laura isn't on it - even though she's just become his latest ex. He's got his life back, you see. He can do what he wants when he wants: like listen to whatever music he likes, look up the girls that are on his list, and generally behave as if Laura never mattered. But Rob finds he can't move on. He's stuck in a really deep groove - and it's called Laura. Soon, he's asking himself some big questions: about love, about life - and about why we choose to share ours with the people we do.
Inside This Book
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Over the years I have bought about half a dozen copies of "High Fidelity" and given them all away to friends with the exhortation to "...read this, it's just wonderful"! Sadly none of my friends ever seem to find the same sense of unadulterated joy in Hornby's prose as I do.
My current copy came from a charity shop and has a small sticker on the back saying "50p - Good", obviously intended as a comment on the physical condition of the book, but which I mistakenly took to be a critical review. I still recall my embarrassment on marching to the desk demanding to know why it didn't say "excellent"!
The blurb inside the front cover starts with a quote from the Guardian: "The most frequent response to High Fidelity is `Oh God, I know people just like that'..." Well it's true; I do - me. Whenever I re-read the novel, which has been every couple of years, I find myself wincing with painful self-recognition. Right down to the obsessive list making (each new diary of mine used to start with a list of my top ten albums, novels and movies so that I could compare the lists back to previous years).
Hornby is such an astute writer, with a real gift for comedy. If you regard "Fever Pitch" as a memoir then amazingly "High Fidelity" is his debut novel and it is astonishing. I know all the jokes yet still find myself reading with an inane grin on my face, when I'm not laughing uncontrollably - not a book to read on a quiet train. In Rob Fleming he has created a totally believable and fatally flawed human being, and I still find myself rooting for him from the bottom of my heart.
Hornby's authorial voice is conversational with an immediacy that makes you feel as though he had written a confessional just for you alone. His dialogue is an object lesson in authenticity for any aspiring writer; effortlessly fluent and compulsively readable. It certainly makes its way into my list of my top five favourite novels, year on year.
My current copy came from a charity shop and has a small sticker on the back saying "50p - Good", obviously intended as a comment on the physical condition of the book, but which I mistakenly took to be a critical review. I still recall my embarrassment on marching to the desk demanding to know why it didn't say "excellent"!
The blurb inside the front cover starts with a quote from the Guardian: "The most frequent response to High Fidelity is `Oh God, I know people just like that'..." Well it's true; I do - me. Whenever I re-read the novel, which has been every couple of years, I find myself wincing with painful self-recognition. Right down to the obsessive list making (each new diary of mine used to start with a list of my top ten albums, novels and movies so that I could compare the lists back to previous years).
Hornby is such an astute writer, with a real gift for comedy. If you regard "Fever Pitch" as a memoir then amazingly "High Fidelity" is his debut novel and it is astonishing. I know all the jokes yet still find myself reading with an inane grin on my face, when I'm not laughing uncontrollably - not a book to read on a quiet train. In Rob Fleming he has created a totally believable and fatally flawed human being, and I still find myself rooting for him from the bottom of my heart.
Hornby's authorial voice is conversational with an immediacy that makes you feel as though he had written a confessional just for you alone. His dialogue is an object lesson in authenticity for any aspiring writer; effortlessly fluent and compulsively readable. It certainly makes its way into my list of my top five favourite novels, year on year.
Format:Paperback
The plot: Boy meets girl, loses her, attempts to woo her back while keeping afloat a record shop and unruly employees in a trendy area of London.
The good bits: You'll be laughing through the majority of this book and feeling quite sad at other parts. Fast paced and full of the vitality of reflecting on rather a disastrous life. Each character is full of life and you end up loving them all. It is a real story with what you feel like real people, all down to the beauty of Hornby's writing.
The bad bits: Brutally honest Rob, tells us his secrets warts and all. You will dislike him passionatly at times yet there is something so good in him that you can't help thinking that he is just a human prone to mistakes like us all. You may want him to just get on with life and get his act together but this confliction of opinion makes this point more a good bit than a bad. Afterall, it makes for a good read.
Worth a mention: By the time you have counted up all the records mentioned throughout the book you'll have a pretty good play list. This book was chosen to have a special `tattoo' cover design as part of the Penguin Ink collection.
When should you read it: When you feel in the mood to reflect on life, its good and bad bits. Just make sure you read it alongside a good set of records on a night in when everyone is on a night out.
The good bits: You'll be laughing through the majority of this book and feeling quite sad at other parts. Fast paced and full of the vitality of reflecting on rather a disastrous life. Each character is full of life and you end up loving them all. It is a real story with what you feel like real people, all down to the beauty of Hornby's writing.
The bad bits: Brutally honest Rob, tells us his secrets warts and all. You will dislike him passionatly at times yet there is something so good in him that you can't help thinking that he is just a human prone to mistakes like us all. You may want him to just get on with life and get his act together but this confliction of opinion makes this point more a good bit than a bad. Afterall, it makes for a good read.
Worth a mention: By the time you have counted up all the records mentioned throughout the book you'll have a pretty good play list. This book was chosen to have a special `tattoo' cover design as part of the Penguin Ink collection.
When should you read it: When you feel in the mood to reflect on life, its good and bad bits. Just make sure you read it alongside a good set of records on a night in when everyone is on a night out.
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