Reflections on Nick Hornby

Interesting Nick Hornby interview in the Guardian. Simon Hattenstone says Hornby has made a career as a feel-good author out of misery.

Take Fever Pitch, his breakthrough memoir. As much as it is about football, it is about a man coping with depression, under-achieving and not belonging. Or High Fidelity, his first novel. Yes, it's the story of a music-obsessed geek, but it's also the story of an emotional illiterate who can't make head nor tail of life. Then there's About A Boy, which features a subplot about a mother trying not to commit suicide, and How To Be Good, which portrays a middle-aged couple striving unsuccessfully to find hope in their relationship.

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As much as Hornby's prose is praised for its pared-down simplicity, it has been criticised, too, for lacking depth. For all the ennui and misery, most of his books end on an uppish note. "I think one of the reasons the books work is because people identify with that sort of depression, and they also want to be told that there might be some kind of reason to keep going." Is it a commercial decision, then, to end his books with some kind of hope? He laughs and clicks his fingers with delight. "It would be brilliant if it was a commercial decision. No. No, it's about what I want to believe. It's to offer myself consolation."

To my mind, Horby's real gift is his ability to capture character. About a Boy was so good because of the boy, Marcus, a decidedly uncool kid with a dreadful mother. And who doesn't know guys like the hero of High Fidelity, who thinks obsessively in terms of lists: The top five bands, movies, books or break ups. I once worked with a bunch of sports-obsessed guys who spent their spare time coming up with oddball baseball teams, in which each team member shared a beside-the-point characteristic like Swedish ancestry. As with any team, each position had to be filled with a bonafide shortstop, pitcher, whatever. The rest of us in the newsroom where I worked both dreaded and looked forward to these lists, in which eligible players were batted about the room for inclusion. I remember none of the players and only the name of one of the teams, which was--I kid you not--"The All Hot and Cold Buffet Team." I leave it to better historians of the game than I to reconstitute the team.