Simone and Her Books

I’ve been a huge fan of High Fidelity the movie since it came out. Every few months, my husband and I would get the jones to watch it again. It also helped that Rob was a huge fan of pop music, but the book revealed to me that he’s also a massive man child.

Here’s more about the book

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 just 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 behaves 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, Rob’s asking himself some big questions: about love, about life – and about why we choose to share ours with the people we do.

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My thoughts

If you’re a fan of the movie, then you’ll love the book. It was almost like they were companions of each other. It’s obvious that the adaptation stayed true to the book. There were literal lines from the book pulled straight out to create the lines for the movie. It felt like seeing a book actually come to life and while you wish you can see this with more fantasy books and other highly adored fandoms, we get it for High Fidelity.

But there’s obvious differences between the book and the movie. It was definitely tough to read this objectively especially since I knew the movie by heart and some of the moments would just have me think of the scenes, but like every other story by Nick Hornby, this is the story of a guy who only cared about one thing for a really long time; himself. It’s the story about how he had the woman of any man’s dreams and he squandered it because he got in his own damn way. And while you read about him rehashing on all of his older relationships and visiting them and his philosophies on life, love, and music, you start to wonder if his mother was right when she said “you meet a girl, you move in, she goes!”

With these kinds of books, though, the reader is looking for something. They’re looking for resolution. Alright, Rob. Time to get your shit together and let’s grow up a little bit. And in the span of 350 pages, the author needs to prove why Rob is the protagonist, why he’s the character you need to root for, and why you should care.

To be honest, it was tough. And yet, I really liked the book.

I love when an author is able to write a character that makes you hate them. You want to see him succeed, but in so many ways he fails and it becomes more and more difficult to root for. Every time there’s a glimmer of hope that Rob will learn his lesson, he stumbles back. It’s more of a “two steps forward, one step back” sort of deal with Rob’s growth and while some will find that irritating, others will probably see that as an achievement. How have you not learned your lesson?

That’s what compelled me to keep reading, too. I wanted to see if book Rob does what movie Rob does in the smallest way; grow. And while in the smallest amounts he does, there were still some points where I just couldn’t get behind him. His way of always blaming someone else. His constant need for attention by the opposite sex. His jealousy learning that Laura was with someone else. Even the way he wooed Marie LaSalle made me cringe. I found myself tsking at Rob and shaking my head at the book and just hoping that he would have the epiphany and realize what he’s doing is not conducive to getting Laura back…if he even wants her back.

The final act of the book was the part that confused me the most. You see two people finally come back together (and if this is a spoiler, I’m sorry), but they are almost back together out of convenience. Laura basically puts her hands up and says “well, I’m too old to try so might as well settle” (in as many words). So the reader is then dangling between two possibilities; does it get better or do they just do this sad dance of relationship hell for the rest of their lives? Nick Hornby really leaves it to the reader to make their own conclusions on how this couple ends up and I am of two minds. At the end of the movie, I’m really hopeful. At the end of the book, I’m not too sure. It’s kind of funny because the two media are matched. They both have the same ending and the same plot and the same characters and everything. With the exception of a few aesthetic changes, they are pretty much the same, but somehow I’m left more depressed about humanity’s ability to love after reading the book than I am when I watched the movie.

And I guess that’s the fault of the movie. They glamorize it and make you feel like this is going to be the time Rob gets his shit together and considers someone besides himself. You get that Hollywood ending where you walk out of the theater with a smile on your face and you think that maybe love isn’t so bad. But the book is another story. Like I mentioned, the book is like a companion piece to the movie. And because it’s the book, it dives further into Rob’s quirky nature that you don’t readily see in the movie and from the evidence, my opinion of Rob is completely changed. I liked movie Rob better than book Rob and I think I’ll stick with how the movie ends in my head.

Overall, this book is just a testament to Nick Hornby’s abilities as an author. I truly applaud him for creating a character who made me want to reach into the book and shake until he got a grip while also made me feel empathetic for and hoping that he does get the girl in the end.