Small Strokes Big Oaks

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, eh?  Well, I finally got a chance to sit down and read a book from cover to cover.  For fun!  I’m not surprised that I was drawn to the newest Nick Hornby book for my first dive into pleasure reading since I started grad school.  Nick Hornby and I have a very complicated relationship – well, as much as one can have with a famous author one has never met. He was with me on my way to and from Europe.  He was with me all through college and into my first job, saving me from endless nights of boredom.  Or, rather, his novels were.  Whenever I pick up one of his books, I can’t seem to put it down, but I always seem to both fall in love and take issue with his characters.  Sure, they are charmingly twisted as well as passionate about the same things I am passionate about – mostly music – and represent some of the more interesting people I met in college and mostly don’t talk to anymore, but most of the characters are completely hung up on intimate relationships and, quite honestly, most of the interesting ones are men!  It’s telling that the books he’s had made into major motion pictures have the typical lineup: John Cusak (High Fidelity), Hugh Grant (About A Boy), and Jimmy Fallon (Fever Pitch).  Am I missing any?  Sure, Drew Barrymore co-starred in Fever Pitch – and I admittedly haven’t read that novel – but I didn’t find her character in that movie particularly well-developed.  She more or less just served to “even out” (read: suck the passion for the Red Sox out of) Jimmy Fallon’s character’s life.  Plus, I’m not a huge fan of Drew Barrymore.  Just sayin’.

But the exact issue I had with his previous novels of his I had read (the lack of well-rounded female characters, for those of you not following along) was turned on its head with Juliet, Naked.  (If you haven’t read the book and plan on doing so, DO NOT READ FURTHER!  Unless you don’t mind spoilers.)  The super-basic skeleton of the plot is this: Annie and Duncan live together in England and have no children.  Duncan is obsessed with a recluse, American singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe.  Tucker gave up his music career suddenly and without explanation sometime in the 80’s, and was never heard from since.  This gave his fans, namely Duncan, much to talk about on the internet.  (Think Salinger.)  Tucker’s final album was called “Juliet” and he releases the raw tracks of an album called “Juliet, Naked.”  (Think Beatles.)  Annie hears it before Duncan.  Duncan gets mad and writes a glowing review on his website.  Annie doesn’t think as much of it, and writes as much on Duncan’s website.  Duncan cheats on Annie with Gina.  Annie dumps Duncan.  Meanwhile, Tucker reads Annie’s review and likes it and e-mails her, and they keep up an internet conversation.  Tucker is not, in fact, the recluse everyone thinks he is.  He has a rather complicated family situation that I will spare you from reading about here.  But he ends up sparking a sort of e-mail relationship with Annie, meets her in person, and the end is left sort of ambiguous.  The only thing we know for sure about Tucker at the end is that he’s seemingly found true happiness.

As usual throughout this love… polygon?…, Hornby’s characters are well-rounded and complex, and his writing style is such that, from beginning to end, it feels as if you’ve only been reading for about thirty minutes.  The story itself is wonderfully funny.  I laughed several times.  Aloud.  In the gym.  This never happens, as I particularly like to keep up my tough and aggressive front while I am at the gym.  I was warned by @megan_eb that I might cry at the end and, while I did not do that, I did feel suburbly sentimental throughout the majority of the novel.

Why was I so sentimental, you might ask?  Because Annie’s character spoke to me.  The most inspiring, lovely, refreshing, wonderful (and a host of other positive adjectives) thing about this novel was Annie’s character.  She was painted as an endearing, slightly neurotic woman, stronger than she gave herself credit for, and determined to find some semblance happiness despite “wasting” fifteen years of her life with Duncan and finding herself childless – which is sad because she desperately wanted children.  Being in her head was like being in my own sometimes.  Reading her rationale for wanting children and a fulfilling relationship was like seeing my own thoughts on the page.  Pouring over her sometimes obsessive thoughts about men and dating was almost like a mirror-image and, while I don’t normally like being reminded of what is and has gone on in my thoughts, this time I found it endearing and sort of like, maybe, I’m actually kind of normal.  Or moreso than I previously thought.

So, perhaps Annie is not the everywoman, but I related to her, which I don’t usually do with female characters in novels, particularly those written by men (this is not a sexist thing; I just feel like, sometimes, they don’t get it!), and I would definitely recommend this novel.  Especially to feminists! 🙂

Have you read this book?  Or any other books by Nick Hornby?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!