How to be Good

Title: How to be Good

Author: Nick Hornby

Penguin, 2001

Some people find this novel funny. I think it is the darkest novel by Hornby to date. The novel is based on the premise that if you have the means to do good, you should. And, I assume, for people who find this idea preposterously bizarre the novel will appear humorous. The kind of humor that makes you laugh when people fall on their asses. I just feel the heaviness of Western, middle-class, privilege on my shoulders. In the end, Hornby recues the reader with a final message: first, you have to take care of yourself and the people close to you, then you can start bothering about saving the world. So, I better get cracking on my loved ones.

It was a bit too grown-up for the students. The intricasies of marriage, age and complacency is not something that immediatly speaks to you when you are 17 going on 18 And maybe it shouldn't.