Rob Fleming’s life is in a shambles. His girlfriend, Laura, just left him for the guy that used to live upstairs, and the record store he owns is failing miserably. He seems to have no friends other than his two employees, and the three of them just sit around all day discussing music and drafting Top 5 lists, arguing about sandwich fillings and saxophone solos. In the meantime, Rob falls into a serious bout of self-loathing and starts pining for every girl that has ever broken his heart. Such is author Nick Hornby’s hilarious 1995 novel High Fidelity.
Rob is a 35-year-old London music snob who judges people by their record collections, but that’s not why Laura left him (OK, that is part of it.) Rob also owes her money (a sizeable chunk of money,) he had an affair with a girl he fell in love with while listening to a Cowboy Junkies song, and he was responsible for Laura’s abortion. It was all enough to drive Laura into the arms of the bloke upstairs, and now Rob is miserable.
The problem is that Rob is a hopeless romantic, and he holds a steadfast belief that he can persuade Laura to come back. He figures that the best way to accomplish this is by stalking her, and he begins calling and hanging up several times a day, and hanging out across the street from her new residence. To complicate things (because it wouldn’t be funny if he didn’t complicate matters further,) Rob fulfills a long-time dream and sleeps with an American recording artist named Marie (her version of “Baby, I Love Your Way” brings him to tears,) and he begins ringing up his Top 5 Girls That Broke His Heart to clarify why.
In the meantime, there’s life at the store. He has very few customers, his employees, through their snobbery, drive away the few that do come around, and his friend Barry, is starting a band (called “Barrytown,” no less.) His other employee is dating a Simple Minds fan (another no-no—Simple Minds appears on the staff’s Top 5 Bands or Musicians Who Will Have to be Shot Come the Musical Revolution.) Things are spinning out of control, and all Rob really wants is to compile the ultimate mix tape and for his life to be like a Bruce Springsteen song.
And it was while reading High Fidelity that I suddenly got it—the reason I have sabotaged every single relationship I’ve ever had: “It’s no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently.” Christ, not only do I identify with Rob, hell, I am Rob. He is a flake, this Rob guy. Music controls his life entirely too much, he speaks before he thinks (which results in something hilariously stupid,) and as soon as he starts a relationship, he begins searching for a way out. Honestly, pretty much any 35+ eternally single dude should identify with Rob at least on some level, because face it, we are all slackers, or we’d have wives and kids and we would own things. Rob doesn’t have opinions, he has Top 5 lists. He doesn’t have a job so much as he has a place where he pays rent. He doesn’t understand why his girlfriends fail to see the genius in some obscure B-side R&B single. He falls in love with women because he falls in love with songs (or even moments in songs.)
Frankly, Rob’s life pretty much resembles almost every reason every girlfriend I’ve ever had has split.
And I love him for it.
Because if there is hope for Rob (and despite his self-hatred and insecurity, he is eternally optimistic,) there’s hope for you and me (and yes, that sadly means we’re pinning our life’s hopes on a fictional, flaky slacker character.)
High Fidelity is the most fun I’ve had in awhile, literary-wise. It’s full of dry British humor and tons of pop culture references—everything from Reservoir Dogs to Cheers to thirtysomething. It’s a music lover’s dream, what with its Top 5 lists and arguments (“what, so Keith Richards has the same job as Bill Wyman, according to you?”) It is a funny, entertaining book deserving the attention of any perpetually single male over 35.
In this funny, contemporary first novel, a young pop music junkie finds that his myriad diversions after the breakup with his longtime girlfriend are ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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