Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

I've never read "Fever Pitch", "High Fidelity" or "About a Boy", but I liked the movies pretty well, so when I read the review of "Juliet, Naked" and found out that the author, Nick Hornby had written those 3 novels, I was curious enough to hit "Buy now with 1-click - you can be reading this on your kindle within 30 seconds - send to Janie's Ipad" (this has nothing to do with the book - its just a comment on the millions that Amazon must be making off of impulsive shoppers like me).

LT

Here's the plot: As the book begins, the 2 main characters (an unhappy 40ish couple from a lifeless and timeworn English seaside village) begin a pilgrimage in the USA to visit sites that were supposedly significant in the life of a rock star named Tucker Crowe who has been in hiding for the last 20 years.

Duncan and Annie, the travelling couple, visit a toilet stall in a dark Minnesota bar, among other places to try to uncover the mystery behind Crowe's disappearance. Duncan is the stalker-like fan who fancies himself as the world's leading "Crowologist", aided by his blog and a handful of other Crowe fans worldwide who spend many hours analyzing the lyrics, music and known behavior of their idol.

As their trip progresses, Annie becomes more and more sick of Duncan's obsessive behavior and total lack of interest in doing any sightseeing not related to Crowe. Upon their return home, an unexpected new release of demos from Tucker Crowe is waiting in their mailbox. Duncan, anxious to one-up all of his blog followers by announcing the new release, listens to the CD once and posts an extremely positive review.

Annie has also heard the CD and quietly posts her own review on the website, disagreeing with Duncan. As their relationship deteriorates and ends, Annie gets a response to her review from the artist himself, Tucker Crowe, agreeing with her assessment.

I'm not great a synopsizing the messages within novels, so I'm just going to quote the NY Times Review of the book, which says it pretty well for me:

All three characters have dark views of themselves, and Hornby relies mainly on their self-criticism to make you smirk. Tucker, finding himself corralled into a series of reunions with his estranged children, thinks he’s becoming an expert on “paternal reintroduction” and wonders whether he should run classes. Annie tries to work out an algebraic equation that can tell her exactly how many real years she’s wasted with Duncan. Yet Hornby still gets you to sympathize with each one’s earnest quest for some belated emotional maturity.

Nick Hornby is again having fun with — making fun of — an obsessive music fan. What’s different now, 14 years after “High Fidelity,” is that fans live out their obsessions on the Internet, a place where distances shrink, time collapses, and it’s very easy to get lost. Hornby seems, as ever, fascinated by the power of music to guide the heart, and in this very funny, very charming novel, he makes you see why it matters.