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Q&A | May 1, 2012

Gregg Allman: IMG Powell’s Q&A: Gregg Allman



Describe your new book: This book is the story of my life — the ups, the downs, and the music. If someone were to write your biography, what... Continue »
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    My Cross to Bear

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4 Burnside Literature- A to Z
1 Remote Warehouse Film and Television- Novelization

eBook editions

High Fidelity

by Nick Hornby

High Fidelity Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

High Fidelity is the story of Rob, a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store. His girlfriend Laura has just left him for Ian from the flat upstairs. Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? This narrowly misses his list of all-time top five most memorable split-ups. Rob seeks refuge in the company of Barry and Dick, the offbeat clerks at his store. They speak the masculine language of lists, endlessly reviewing their top five films (Reservoir Dogs...); top five Elvis Costello songs ("Alison"...); top five episodes of Cheers (the one where Woody sang his stupid song to Kelly...). Rob tries dating a singer called Marie (a post-Partridge Family, pre-L.A. Law Susan Dey), who once sold a song to Nanci Griffith. Her rendition of "Baby, I Love Your Way" makes him cry. But maybe it's just that he's always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think (as awful as it sounds) that life as an episode of thirtysomething, with all the kids and marriages and jobs and barbecues and k.d. lang CDs that this implies, might not be so bad.

Review:

"Hornby's seamless prose and offhand humor make for one hilarious set piece after another, as suffering, self-centered Rob ruminates on women, and Abbey Road. But then he's forced to consider loneliness, fitting-in, death, and failure — and that is what lingers." Spin

Review:

"Made me laugh out loud more than any book I can remember. Hornby writes like Martin Amis with a heart or Roddy Doyle with an unfeasibly large record collection." Tony Parsons, Daily Telegraph (London)

Review:

"It is rare that a book so hilarious is also so sharp about sex and manliness, memory and music." The New Yorker

Review:

"High Fidelity is about love, and about the ways in which music (and film, books, and art) affect our experiences of real-life love....Although [it] is a trip through territory that in real life is mundane, depressing, and trite...the novel is anything but." Molly Gould, San Francisco Review of Books

Review:

"[I]t's [Hornby's] literate, painfully honest riffs on romantic humiliation and heartbreak that make the book so special. A rare, touching glimpse of the masculine view of affairs of the heart." Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist

Review:

"Mr. Hornby captures the loneliness and childishness of adult life with such precision...that you'll find yourself nodding and smiling....High Fidelity fills you with the same sensation you get from hearing a debut record album that has more charm and verve than anything you can recall." Mark Jolly, The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Nick Hornby is the author of the bestselling novels High Fidelity and About a Boy, as well as the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the editor of the short story collection Speaking with the Angel. In 1999, he was the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award. He lives in north London.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:

mmarosz, January 4, 2010 (view all comments by mmarosz)
The book about the most important things in life: love and music.
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clarissa004, January 1, 2010 (view all comments by clarissa004)
best book i read in the decade! have read multiple times and gifted it to everyone i know who loves music. both signs of a great book - not to be confused with high literature - but great all the same!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781573228213
Author:
Hornby, Nick
Publisher:
Riverhead Books
Location:
New York :
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Man-woman relationships
Subject:
London
Subject:
Movie-TV Tie-In
Subject:
Young men
Subject:
Sound recordings
Subject:
Movie-TV Tie-In - General
Subject:
Media Tie-In - General
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Humorous Stories
Subject:
Bildungsroman.
Subject:
Film and Television-Novelization
Copyright:
Edition Description:
Mass Market
Series Volume:
00-12
Publication Date:
20000331
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
from 12
Language:
English
Pages:
336
Dimensions:
8.14x5.14x.76 in. .62 lbs.
Age Level:
from 18

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Related Subjects

Arts and Entertainment » Film and Television » Novelization
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Languages » Foreign Languages » Spanish » Arts and Entertainment » Film and Television » Novelization

High Fidelity Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$5.95 In Stock
Product details 336 pages Riverhead Books - English 9781573228213 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Hornby's seamless prose and offhand humor make for one hilarious set piece after another, as suffering, self-centered Rob ruminates on women, and Abbey Road. But then he's forced to consider loneliness, fitting-in, death, and failure — and that is what lingers."
"Review" by , "Made me laugh out loud more than any book I can remember. Hornby writes like Martin Amis with a heart or Roddy Doyle with an unfeasibly large record collection."
"Review" by , "It is rare that a book so hilarious is also so sharp about sex and manliness, memory and music."
"Review" by , "High Fidelity is about love, and about the ways in which music (and film, books, and art) affect our experiences of real-life love....Although [it] is a trip through territory that in real life is mundane, depressing, and trite...the novel is anything but."
"Review" by , "[I]t's [Hornby's] literate, painfully honest riffs on romantic humiliation and heartbreak that make the book so special. A rare, touching glimpse of the masculine view of affairs of the heart."
"Review" by , "Mr. Hornby captures the loneliness and childishness of adult life with such precision...that you'll find yourself nodding and smiling....High Fidelity fills you with the same sensation you get from hearing a debut record album that has more charm and verve than anything you can recall."
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