How To Be Good (Nick Hornby)
Nick Horn
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Nick Hornby's novel How to Be Good, tells the story of Katie and David Carr, two Londoners blessed with most of the good things in life who are nevertheless committed to making the world a better place for the less fortunate. David, a columnist who is bitter and sarcastic, is described by Katie as "the definition of aggrieved. Permanently (5)." Katie, from David's perspective, is a woman who fails to "care how I am (4)" and whose energies are directed at making the world better for everyone but him. For these two middle-aged, married individuals, "being good means very different things. Katie's understanding of this human obligation, and the changes she experiences as she recalls her life with David and together they move to the future, will serve as the focus of this report. Katie knows herself as "not a bad person," as a doctor seeking to do "Good" who finds herself married to a man whose anger had spoiled their marriage and led her to commit adultery in what seems to be self-defense (8). Though she has begun an extramarital love affair with Stephen, she only contemplates divorcing her husband as a last resort û a defense against the unremitting anger and bitterness that this failed novelist exhibits at every turn. Katie, like many other well-educated, relatively affluent professionals of her era, believes that she has obligations to others who have not enjoyed her success. She concerns herself with her patients, with her children, with her father, and with a
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one. Further, he now seems to be of the opinion that it is up to every person in a society û and not just up to government û to take care of others (91). Katie suspects that David's new attitude is as selfish and "bad" as his earlier beliefs. She is a liberal and is a "good person" according to her understanding of the term. She sees in her husband's actions nothing more than a new version of his earlier selfishness and disregard for the feelings of his nearest and dearest.
David, thinks Katie, is a "recently-created angel (92)." His new demeanor is no more appealing to her than his past sarcasm. Indeed, David's new attitude is seem by Katie as a "great steaming bowl of sanctimony (93)" and not as a genuine attempt to be "good." Katie knows herself to be a good person, but deeply resents the fact that her smug husband (and his new ally, their daughter) has simply transferred his arrogance from one side of the coin to the other. There is something ultimately excessive about David's reversal of opinion and attitude that makes Katie very uncomfortable.
At issue for Katie throughout the novel is the question of what it truly means to be a "good person." Katie, a self-described liberal who is anti-racism, sexism, discrimina
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Approximate Word count = 1440
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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