Juliet is naked and here at last
I picked up a copy yesterday at lunch, and so far, it's a return to form. For me, Nick's best when he's sending up the male obsessive as he did in Fever Pitch and High Fidelity. I'm only 50 some pages in, but so far it's a cracker. Join me.
Labels: Juliet Naked, LOB Book Club, Nick Hornby
posted by gooner71 @ 3:10 PM
7 Comments:
Getting my copy tonight. Not sure when I'll get through it as October is quite busy. Traveling to California next weekend, maybe during layovers I can plod through it :)
I'll get me copy this weekend when we get up to Borders. Should be able to get up to you by the end of the weekend. I'm really looking forward to it.
Cheers!
Just a heads-up that Terry Gross interviewed our Nick about "Juliet, Naked" on Fresh Air yesterday. It's available for download at iTunes and the other usual sources. Enjoy!
53 pages in and the crack about middle aged men regretting staying up late listening to music they just downloaded off the internet hit a bit close to home :)
EXACTLY!!! SS, I woke my wife up laughing at that bit. Spotter's badge for that one.
I picked up "Juliet, Naked" at the local Borders after catching Michael Moore's latest last night. I got through about fifteen pages before conking out last night but it was enough to provoke a few preliminary questions.
Gooner's absolutely right - Nick's forte is the male obsessive and the beginning of "Juliet" reminds me of the opening scene of "Fever Pitch" in which Nick wonders if his girlfriend will think him mad for running through Anders Limpars's greatest hits while in bed.
The question I've got though is where that obsessive element, especially with regard to music, comes from in men; and why does it not seem to exist in women? I've known dozens of obsessive music people in my life and all of them have been men like the ones profiled so well by Hornby. As I reject the socio-biological "hard-wired" arguments about gender, I have to focus on cultural explanations. But as Gooner will attest, there was very little music in my family's life growing up and yet both of us ended up music obsessive. Why?
I do not know what it is. This pursuit of trivial knowledge and minutia that becomes an obsession. How many women do you know who read almanacs and encyclopedias? I think it's why you see substantially fewer long term female champions on Jeopardy. I do think there's something hardwired and genetic happening, but have nothing to back that up. What is it about the culture, though, that allows men to become like that, to become these hunters and gatherers of selective facts?
Post a Comment
<< Home