The duo go about this by nominally convincing people to give their spare bedrooms to the homeless, but as their next scheme comes around, "reversal" (being good to people one has been not good to in the past), this proves to be fruitless and thus David gives up his strivings and his plans for a book on how to be good, appropriately named "How to be Good."
The novel has a funny side, mostly due to the conversion of the husband, David, from an angry, cynical and negative man to a "do-gooder." Nevertheless, its most important subject is the crisis that the couple is going through.
The protagonist, Katie, briefly encounters a minor character named Dick whose description and attitude towards music are reminiscent of the character of the same name from Hornby's first novel, High Fidelity.
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The story of a woman's attempts to save her marriage after her husband becomes infatuated with new-age guru. There are so many wonderful things about this book -- instantly engaging prose, credible characterisations, too many laugh-out-loud moments to count... And it was thought-provoking without ever becoming preachy. Ugh, but the ending! Grim and cold and felt like a complete cop-out. Throughout the story, the characters seemed to learn a lot about themselves and their situation and what it would take to move forward in their world... and then in the last few pages, they just turn their back on all that and go back to being more or less exactly as miserable as they all were at the beginning. I understand this must have been a difficult book to end, and I was curious as to how the author was going to pull it off... but in truth, he did not, and it was ultimately disappointing.
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www.smartbookworms.co.uk/how_to_be_good/
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