How to Be Good

The character who tells this story is a physician and the breadwinner of her London-based family. She thinks of herself as a good person, especially in contrast to her caustic husband. When she admits that she's having an affair, he attempts to turn himself into a good person, too, with the help of a faith healer. The results are totally unexpected. Fortunately, the witty and perceptive author does not take his heroine as seriously as she does, though he makes her likable enough in her benign self-absorption. He has a light, sophisticated touch, a sense of humor, sympathy for his characters, and an ability to make rather sordid details seem tame. British actress Jenny Sterlin handles this with a wistful, put-upon air that lets the humor play through without her actually having to reach for it. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Starred review from September 3, 2001
Audio Reviews reflect PW+'s assessment of the audio adaptation of a book and should be quoted only in reference to the audio version. FICTION HOW TO BE GOOD Nick Hornby, read by Frances Barber. Putnam Berkley Audio, abridged, four cassettes, four hrs., $24.95 ISBN 0-399-14823-X Kate, a doctor, wife and mother, is in the midst of a difficult decision: whether to leave or stay with her bitter, sarcastic husband David (who proudly writes a local newspaper column called "The Angriest Man in Holloway"). The long-term marriage has gone stale, but is it worth uprooting the children and the comfortable lifestyle? Then David meets a faith healer called Dr. Goodnews, and suddenly converts to an idealistic do-gooder: donating the children's computer to an orphanage, giving away the family's Sunday dinner to homeless people and inviting runaways to stay in the guest room (and convincing the neighbors to do likewise). Barber gives an outstanding performance as Kate, humorously conveying her mounting irritation at having her money and belongings donated to strangers, her guilt at not feeling more generous and her hilarious desire for revenge. Barber brilliantly portrays each eccentric character: hippie-ish Goodnews, crusading David, petulant children and, poignantly, the hesitant, halting Barmy Brian, a mentally deficient patient of Kate's who needs looking after. Barber's stellar performance turns a worthy novel into a must-listen event. Simultaneous release with Riverhead hardcover (Forecasts, June 25).

Starred review from June 25, 2001
"Good" characters in novels are notoriously hard to create, not because goodness is uninteresting, but because when it's uncontaminated by self-interest it isn't plausible, especially in a comedy. In Hornby's (High Fidelity; About a Boy) hilarious novel, the problem of goodness is dumped on Dr. Katie Carr. After more than 20 years of marriage and two children, Katie has had it: she's having an affair, feels intellectually dull and wishes her husband, David, would turn into a different person. Unfortunately for her, she gets her wish when David, a bitter, semi-employed intellectual who writes a column for a local newspaper subtitled "The Angriest Man in Holloway," becomes a secular saint. To spite her after an argument in which she suggests that they divorce, he goes to a dreadlocked faith-healer named DJ GoodNews. When GoodNews lays his hands on David, he suddenly becomes loving, concerned and utterly humorless. He gives money away, stops writing his column, organizes housing for the homeless (inconveniently enough, with neighbors whose houses have empty rooms) and invites GoodNews to move in. David donates the children's surplus toys to charity and asks them to adopt the uncool kids at school as their friends; their son, Tom, hates this, but his sister, Molly, develops an alarmingly patronizing friendship with a smelly little girl named Hope. Just how will Katie handle being surrounded by all of this horrible goodness? Hornby relies less than usual upon pop references—which would be inappropriate for Katie's character anyway, although Homer Simpson is invoked a few times—but he has created, without them, a very funny agon of liberalism. (July 9)Forecast:Despite, or perhaps because of, the declining popularity of the self-conscious hipness that made
High Fidelity such a hit, Hornby's latest should enjoy even wider U.S. sales, bolstered by a national print ad campaign and author tour.