Tuesday, August 7, 2012

When I'm in the mood for something relatively "light", but thoughtful, usually with some really good quotable lines, I often look towards Nick Hornby.  It's not his latest, but I have recently finished Juliet, Naked, a novel about the art of music appreciation.  Annie and Duncan are in their early 40s and have been a couple in a small seaside town in England for about 15 years.  Duncan is obsessed with an American singer/songwriter who walked away from his craft abruptly in the mid-80s (Tucker Crowe) whom Annie mildly enjoys but humors Duncan anyway.  When an acoustic version of Tucker's most famous album, Juliet, is released called Juliet, Naked Duncan and Annie's competing opinions of the album call to light the problems with their relationship.  I won't divulge how, but Tucker comes into the picture and challenges the opinions of him and his supposed genius and all three of these characters must confront the meaning of appreciating another's art and the impact that appreciation can have on ones own life.  I enjoyed this book for it's good characters and the overt and sometimes covert question, "What have I done with my life?"   

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