High Fidelity by Nick Hornby - PPPP

Rob Fleming has just been dumped. But the indie music store owner is quick to inform us that the breakup doesn’t even make his Top 5 Heartbreaks. He’s been through much worse.

He kicks off the book by recounting those horrible Top 5 experiences, setting the stage for a comedic narrative about love and heartache, and the influential role that music plays.

As the story mainly takes place in London and author Nick Hornby is English, in order to appreciate this book, you have to appreciate the British sense of humor. Totally JK. I hate when people say shit like that. Like all Brits have the exact same sense of humor. If that were the case, every sitcom in the UK would feature an octogenarian couple, a vicar, and a goofy looking mute who makes silly faces. Okay, just because 90% of them do, doesn’t mean that everyone there has the exact same sense of humor. That would be ridiculous.

Anyhoo, what makes this book great is the characters. They’re distinct, realistic, and compelling.

Especially Rob, the protagonist/narrator. In Rob, Hornby has created a character who is both extremely likeable and utterly detestable. Kudos to Hornby on this. It’s a difficult feat to pull off, and he does so masterfully. It’s not every book that you simultaneously love and hate the main character.

Rob is a broke college drop-out in his mid-thirties who runs a hip record shop that’s barely keeping afloat. He’s insecure, awkward, whiny, gloomy, grumpy, frumpy, moody, crotchety, and stalkerific. In other words, to borrow a common British term, he’s a cunt. But he’s also kind, caring, thoughtful, charming, devoted, and self-deprecatory. In other words, he’s a joy.

And it’s not just Rob who sucks you in. The whole cast that Hornby has created are endearing and entertaining, including Laura, the girl who’s just dumped him, Dick and Barry, the Kenny G. and Sid Vicious-esque odd couple who work in his shop, and Marie, the token American thrown in there to offer up directness and sex appeal. I constantly found myself wanting to hang out with this crew. Like they were real people. Well done, Hornby.

Another feather in Hornby’s cap is his ruminations on the relationship between music and love and heartbreak.

What came first—the music or the misery? Did I listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?

Also:

People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands—literally thousands—of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss.

He further contemplates the formidable pull that sentimental ballads have on our heart strings, which flooded my mind with memories from 5th grade. A full year of listening to Look Away by the soft rock band Chicago, belting out the lyrics inside my head, and lamenting a heartache that I had never felt yet could not escape. The chocolate-box song had such a powerful effect on me that rather than risk the pain of heartbreak, I turned to a life of one-night stands. Nothing but empty, fleeting, animalistic sex with gorgeous strangers never to be seen again. Thank you, Chicago!

Anyhoo, what ties it all neatly together is the book’s clever title, High Fidelity. I think. To be honest, I still have no idea what the term means and what kinda metaphor it suggests. But Hornby seems like an intelligent chap who knows what he’s doing, so I’m gonna assume that it provides that heart-warming, everything’s-been-wrapped-up-nicely feeling of satisfaction.

Speaking of which, to sum up, while High Fidelity is not hilarious, it does provide plenty of LOL’s, is well-written and creative, and serves as a thought-provoking meditation on romance, heartbreak, and the wonderful and awful things that people do for and because of love. It’s not gonna make your Top 5 Best Books list, but I think that you will enjoy it. 4 pearls.

Bonus Quote #1: Between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four, foreplay changes from being something that boys want to do and girls don’t, to something that women want and men can’t be bothered with.

Bonus Quote #2: What better way to exorcize rejection demons than to screw the person who rejected you?

Bonus commentary on the movie and TV show:

High Fidelity (2000) movie starring John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, and Jack Black.

Perfect casting with John Cusack & Jack Black. I can’t think of an actor I simultaneously like and dislike as much as Cusack, and Jack Black is the master of loveably sarcastic assholes. Plus, this movie was about as faithful to a book as I’ve ever seen. Except that instead of taking place in London with everyone being British, it takes place in Chicago with everyone being regular. But whatever. Having said that, the book was of course much better than the movie, particularly because Cusack breaks the 4th wall and talks to the audience the whole time. No thanks, John. As such, I can’t really recommend seeing this movie. 6 outta 10.

High Fidelity (2020) TV series starring Zoe Kravitz, Jake Lacy, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph.

I watched the first of ten episodes and was not motivated enough to watch any more. The lead character Rob is now an attractive female lesbian. Meh.