Friday, May 13, 2011

Naked is Not Always Better


Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. Bloody hell, it feels like I'm starting a book report in middle school. However, this book is not for middle schoolers...or high school students for that matter. It's mature, and not mature in the way the world is accustomed to, with all the explicit sex and dirty language. It's mature in a way that's thought provoking and charming. It looks at an almost middle aged woman, Annie, who's wasted fifteen years of her life with a man who was just easy rather than amazing, charming and completely in love with her. A man who ignites fire and passion within her. Duncan is definitely not that man.

Duncan is in love with another man...but mysteriously not in a homosexual way. He is obsessed with a musician who no one has ever heard of and who disappeared after an inexplicable event in a bathroom. So, when Duncan leaves her, she is left wondering what has become of herself, why she wasted so much time and how she make up that time. It leaves her wondering if she can have children (if anyone would even want to have sex with her again...as even Duncan didn't).

She has a chance encounter with the musician, Tucker Crowe. And baffling questions are answered...Annie's life problems are...well not necessarily solved, but definitely examined.

This book is poignant and interesting, it's intriguing and really makes you scrutinize what makes life worth living. This is a quality that Nick Hornby has been able to write about very well, as noted by his other bestsellers, About a Boy and High Fidelity.