This book offers a male perspective on relationships that I haven't seen too often. The protagonist is a 35-year-old man named Rob. He owns a record shop and has recently been dumped by his girlfriend, Laura. This leads him to reflect on other breakups in his life. The first part of the book details his "top five" breakups. (Rob loves "top five" lists; he and his coworkers come up with them all the time, i.e., top five Cheers epsiodes, etc.). His latest breakup isn't in the top five, but he has a lot of difficulty dealing with it nonetheless. It doesn't help that his record shop isn't doing so well. He mostly deals with vintage-type music that is actually on vinyl, and it seems rather symbolic of his difficulty in moving on with his life.
It also doesn't help that Laura is involved with someone else. Rob actually gets obsessed about it, calling Laura at all hours and generally exhibiting some stalker-type behavior. He does get involved with someone else, an American recording artist, for awhile, but the involvement is pretty much on a superficial level. He also looks up his old girlfriends from his "Top Five" breakup list. It is interesting to see how their memories of the relationship (or in some cases lack of memories) differ from his.
Laura doesn't exit his life forever, though. Her father's death acts as a catalyst for Rob to examine some of his underlying fears which are impeding his ability to move forward and make some commitments in his life.
Rob's lamentations get a little old at times, and I actually thought the book was a little depressing. However, the ending was quite uplifting, and a lot of people, male or female, can relate to what he has to say about relationships.
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4 comments:
Great book. Hornby is always funny, poignant. Also recommend "The Polysylabic Spree," a collection of columns/essays Hornby wrote for a literary magazine. Sort of ties in to the topic of this blog.
George, thanks for your comment. I will have to check that out:-).
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