Pop culture references, check. Rock music obsession, check. A cast of adult males who act like stunted children, check. Yup, this is a Nick Hornby novel, all right. It's also his most entertaining book in quite a while, even if it is a retread of his most successful books (that would be High Fidelity and About a Boy). But then, I was no fan of How to Be Good or A Long Way Down, two books in which he tried to do something different. It's not that I love the original formula that much; it just doesn't work for me when he strays from the path.Anyway, there's a lot of fun stuff here, from a skewering of overenthusiastic art criticism to fake Wikipedia pages, and even though it's pretty clear where the story is going, it's an amusing book. It's also thoughtful; there are passages about the way time can pass without you realizing that your life is passing you by, and suddenly you have wasted a decade in a relationship you knew really didn't have a future but were too listless to get yourself out of. That was... depressing actually. But it made me happy to be in a relationship I think does have a future at the same time. Which was... balming. Balmy? Not in a scent way. But the soothing. One thing I do find annoying any time I read a book about a made-up rock legend is that I can't listen to the made-up songs that are described with such reverence. Because they don't exist. Why don't your stupid fake songs exist, Nick Hornby? (Exception to the rule: King Dork, which included said fake songs at the end of the audiobook version. Dreams shattered; they were very annoying.)
