How to be Good and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more

Buy Used
Used - Good See details
Price: £1.49

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Start reading How to be Good on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

How to be Good [Paperback]

Nick Hornby
2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £6.49  
Hardcover --  
Paperback --  
Paperback, 5 May 2005 --  
Audio, Cassette, Abridged, Audiobook --  
Audio Download, Abridged £5.77 or Free with Audible.co.uk 30-day free trial
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

Book Description

5 May 2005
According to her own complex moral calculations, Katie Carr has earned her affair. She's a doctor, after all, and doctors are decent people, and on top of that, her husband David is the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway. But when David suddenly becomes good - properly, maddeningly, give-away-all-his-money good - Katie's sums no longer add up, and she is forced to ask herself some very hard questions. Nick Hornby's brilliant new novel, a No. 1 bestseller in the UK and Ireland, offers a painfully funny account of modern marriage and parenthood, and asks that most difficult of questions: what does it mean to be good?

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (5 May 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0140287019
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140287011
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.6 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (140 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 26,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, and more.

Product Description

Amazon Review

In Nick Hornby's How To Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It's also why she puts up with her husband David, self-styled "Angriest Man in Holloway". But one fateful day, she finds herself in a Leeds car-park, having just slept with another man. What she doesn't yet realise is that her Fall from Grace is just the first step on a spiritual journey more torturous than the M25 at rush-hour. Because, prompted by his wife's actions, David is about to stop being Angry. He's about to become Good--not Guardian-reading, organic-food-eating good, but Good in the fashion of the Gospels. And that's no easier in modern-day Holloway than it was in ancient Israel.

Mr Hornby fires his central theme at us from the title page: how can we be good, and what does that mean? But, quite apart from demanding that his readers scrub their souls with the nearest available Brillo pad, he also mesmerises us with that cocktail of wit and compassion which has become his trademark. The result is a multi-faceted jewel of a book: a hilarious romp, a painstaking dissection of middle-class mores, and a powerfully sympathetic portrait of a marriage in its death throes. It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry as we watch David forcing his kids to give away their computers, drawing up schemes for the mass redistribution of wealth and inviting his wife's most desolate patients round for a Sunday roast. But that's because How To Be Good manages to be both brutally truthful and full of hope. It won't outsell the Bible, but it's a lot funnier. --Matthew Baylis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Nick Hornby was born in 1957, and is the author of three previous books, FEVER PITCH, HIGH FIDELITY and ABOUT A BOY, all international bestsellers and all available in Penguin. He has also edited two anthologies, SPEAKING WITH THE ANGEL and MY FAVOURITE YEAR. He is the pop music critic for the New Yorker, and in 1999 was awarded the E.M.Forster award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives and works in Highbury, North London.

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars How to be average 18 Jun 2002
By Mr S D'Arcy VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
I too found this book a little disappointing! I've read all his others and was looking forward to reading this one, however it never really gripped me. The plot seemed to swing about, leaving characters like her brother and lover incomplete. The actual idea of the book, what would happen if North London liberals really began wearing their hearts on their sleeves, becoming selfless, giving away their possessions & money and so on, is an interesting one but the trigger for it all, GoodNews, just doesn't seem right somehow. As usual, apart from some duds, the dialog and set pieces were amusing but it wasn't enough in the end.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars A Massive Disappointment... 4 Jun 2001
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This has been one of the most eagerly-awaited books of the year. Nick Hornby's excellent previous novels High Fidelity and About A Boy have left readers looking forward to another high-quality novel. The author's ability to translate apparently ordinary characters and situations into hilarious and observational fiction has been a trademark of his success. So all this only serves to make it more difficult to comprehend how Nick Hornby has now come up with such a lousy book.

The story sounds great - Katie Carr, the story's narrator, is unhappy with her marriage to David. She has become tired of his constantly angry moods. She has decided to end the marriage and she even begins an affair with another man. It is just at this moment that David decides to change his ways and become 'good'. And it's this 'good' word that becomes the theme for the rest of the story. Is Katie a good person? Has David now become a good person? What does it take to be a good person?

The opening two chapters of How To Be Good are pretty solid. There are the usual Hornby trademarks of funny observations and a good pace develops. But things start to go rocky from chapter three and continue to nose dive. A big problem with How To Be Good is that it is just plain ridiculous and annoying. David visits a spiritual healer by the name of GoodNews, to cure his backache. GoodNews then becomes an annoying feature for the rest of the book. He moves into the marital home and David becomes a convert. Before long, Katie has to watch whilst her husband and GoodNews embark on a number of 'good' campaigns, such as giving away their money and possessions. They even approach their neighbours in the expectation that they'll take in homeless people so they too can be good. And, naturally, their neighbours are just as keen to be saintly and so some agree to the idea.

Hornby writes okay from a woman's viewpoint and Katie should have been a truely likable character if she hadn't been allowed to fall into the category of doormat. The whole story is a circus of unconvincing and very unfunny events. GoodNews uses his mystical power to cure various ailments. David joins in with many 'good' deeds that are simply insane. Katie has to lie back and accept the fact that homeless and unstable people are going to be popping in and out of her home from now on, because doing so is a 'good' thing. Katie's two children, Tom and Molly, take sides with whoever is their favourite parent. To be fair, Tom adopts a realistic enough attitude and resents the entire 'let's all go mad' lifestyle. However, Molly is another character who behaves as only a fictional character ever could. Katie allows her daughter a level of authority within the home that is completely unrealistic.

There are some okay moments - flashes of wit that are undeniably Hornby-quality. But they're too brief and too rare. In summary, How To Be Good is a silly, unrealistic and mostly unfunny book and to have to say that about a Nick Hornby novel is unexpected.

A massive disappointment.

Was this review helpful to you?
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Dull. 2 Aug 2001
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I'm afraid I found How to be Good very disappointing - was Nick Hornby on the third of a three book deal? The central character was 1 dimensional and uninteresting, the plot was thin, and the whole thing was extremely dull. In the end it just petered out, with no conclusion or resolution for any of the characters.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointed
After reading Fever Pitch, i wanted to explore more of Nick's writing and a girlfriend lent me this book. I do agree with a lot of the reviews on here.. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Jonny84
4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect when driving
I was surprised to read such lacklustre reviews as I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had the audio version for my drives to work and often lingered in the car. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Julie Hughes
2.0 out of 5 stars First Nick Hornby book and I think I picked the wrong one
I admit to abandoning this at around a quarter of the way through the book, which I never do. I really liked the concept for the book, but after several chapters of what felt like... Read more
Published 11 months ago by varmond
1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute rubbish
Started with an affair. Which went nowhere. Started with an interesting husband who became boring. Started with an interesting woman who became a doormat. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mrs. E. Mills
2.0 out of 5 stars Not much of a plot but plenty of ideas
Well, I think it is okay. The characters aren't particularly likeable (why should they be?) but they are certainly recognisable for this liberal Guardianista at least. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Fever Few
2.0 out of 5 stars All a bit New Labour
Promised a lot.

Looked great to start with.

All fell to pieces.

Realised it was a con.
Published 21 months ago by Jonathan Overton
2.0 out of 5 stars TO LAUGH OR TO CRY?
GP Katie Carr contemplates divorcing the permanent sneer that is husband David - the bile that fills his weekly newspaper column unacceptable at home. Read more
Published on 27 Jan 2011 by Mr. D. L. Rees
1.0 out of 5 stars Utter drivel
It has dreary yet unrealistic characters (David's sudden complete change of character after spending two days with GoodNews is never satisfactorily explained), and completely... Read more
Published on 14 Oct 2010 by andyt
2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was expecting of Hornby
Last week my friend lent me `How to be good'. Again, Hornby approaches a difficult subject, namely marriage breakdown, with some wit and humour and yes of course there are still... Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2010 by Louise
2.0 out of 5 stars Not one of Hornby's best...
Not great. The story of a guy who's always cynical, negative and angry, all of sudden becoming an overbearing do gooder is hard to believe. Read more
Published on 17 July 2010 by madaboutbooks
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback