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Re: how to be good
Read this novel myself some time over the summer. Enjoy Nick Hornby's
writing v. much.
I'm surprised that your summary of the book only included details about Katie
and her infidelity:
>>Katie Carr is a thirty-something married mother of two
>>who doesn't seem to know what she wants out of life.
>>She cheats on her husband but regrets it (mostly).
>>She moves out into her own apartment but returns to
>>her family's home. She flits back and forth in a
>>struggle to find herself.
and completely left out the OTHER wildly searching character in the book, and
more of the 'main' character, I think, even than Katie, despite the fact that
it is she who is narrating.
Katie's husband, David, a 'rabidly conservative" writer for the local paper
(whose column is subtitled "The Angriest Man in Holloway,") spends his life
(and makes his living) ranting daily about what's wrong with the world. He's
not happy with anyone or anything... over the years he's cultivated a very
angry persona, and sarcasm is his greatest tool.
When his chronically bad back and bad attitude (part-source of Katie's
unhappiness) are one day miraculously cured by a bit of mystical meditation
with a homeless man named D.J. Good News, (whom he consulted mainly to spite
Katie, who is a very traditional doctor) David changes utterly. He loses
his anger (and, incidentally, his sense of humor,) quits his job, begins
handing away handfuls of cash (and the children's electronics) to needy
people, and invites Good News home to live with them and perform healings out
of their house. When David and Good News organize a neighborhood party to
ask the entire block to allow homeless children to live in their guest rooms,
and take in a teen named Monkey themselves, Katie starts wondering what
happened to her predictable, if unhappy, world.
This is a case of 'be careful what you wish for' on the surface, but more an
excellent study of entirely normal and rational people seeking something they
can't quite define, and surprising themselves and each other at just how far
they'll go to fill the void.
There're only about a half-dozen different ways to interpret the last
paragraph...Julie, Brian... what'd it mean to you?
Anita
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