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What is ‘being Good’?

Nick Hornby is famous for his books like ‘About a boy’, ‘High fidelity’, ‘How to be Good’ and “Fever Pitch’. He was born in 1957 in London and went to Cambridge University. Besides being a writer, he had two other jobs; he was a journalist and an English teacher. In 1999 Nick Hornby got the E. M. Foster award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. (Source: www.contemporarywriters.com)

How to be Good is a book about a woman in her forties, Katie Carr, who is married to a very angry man, David. He is called “The Angriest Man in Holloway” and he makes his living of being angry. He writes a column for a local newspaper about things that make him angry. After a long marriage and 2 children, he becomes so mean and Katie hates him that much, that she sees no other way but having an affair. “There have been times recently, since the beginning of our troubles, when the sight of David awake, active, conscious, walking and talking has made me want to retch, so acute is my loathing of him” But then a miracle happens: David goes to a faith healer, first to torment Katie because she believes that everything can be cured by ‘normal’ medicine. But the unexpected happens: David becomes ‘good’ after seeing a kind of spiritual heeler, DJ GoodNews.

Well, you will think ‘Finally! Now everything’s okay’, but it isn’t. He is truly, very and annoyingly good; he gives toys of his children away; takes homeless people to their home and gives Katie’s honestly earned money away. It’s very interesting to read how Katie and the children react to the behaviour of David, and it looks surprisingly much like the way many people would react.

Katie doesn’t like the fact that David has changed into a different person. Her relationship with David has changed; he suddenly wants to make love to her instead of having sex. “’What are you doing?’ ‘I want to make love to you.’ ‘Yes, well, fine. Get on with it, their doesn’t have to be all this fuss’ I can hear how I sound, and I hate it (…) But the truth is that we’d have been finished by now if this was the old David.” And many things change. Their kids, Tom and Molly, are divided. Tom chooses his mother’s side and Molly loves helping people.

The book is sometimes very hilarious, because it’s written from Katies view. She’s really ironic about David and the new situation in their home, and keeps wondering if she’s a good person, because she is a doctor, and if being a doctor is enough to be good. “I need to think. I need guidance. I’m a good person, I’m a doctor, and here I am championing greed over selflessness, cheering on the haves against the have-nots. Except, I am not really championing anything, am I? I am not, after all, standing up to my unbearably smug husband, an – now – my unbearably smug eight-year-old daughter…”

The theme of the book is relevant nowadays. Being good, acting good, how should we do it? Are you good when you give all your money to homeless people and take them into your home, or are you good when you are a doctor or have a profession that can save lives? Or are you good by being nice to your friends and family? It is a contemporary matter. I guess this book is trying to say that we should try to help people around us, maybe not in the way David tries, but just give them a bit of your time and energy. If everybody would do that, the world would be a better place! That’s why this book will always be good to read and really makes you think about yourself and your actions. “’Love is not boastful, nor proud. It vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. See? What Mark read was translated.’ ’Not love. Charity.’ ‘They’re the same word. I remember this now. Caritas. It’s Latin or Greek or something, and sometimes it’s translated as “charity” and sometimes it’s translated as “love”.