High Fidelity

General information

The book I read was written by Nick Hornby. The name of the book is High Fidelity. High Fidelity, Indigo, London, 1995, first print, 253 pages. The book is a novel.

First opinion

I decided to read this book because a few people I know told me that is was a very nice book to read. I do not know a lot about English books so I trusted them.

I really liked High Fidelity. It is a story about a man called Robert. He tells you about the relationships he had with women. He tells you about his first girlfriend, about the ones that put him aside because of another boy, about the ones he still likes and about the relationship he is having now.

High Fidelity an easy book to read because the language that is used is not very difficult. I also liked the book because it never bored me. Something's always happening.

Getting in depth

-Summary

The story starts when Robert begins to tell us about his ex-girlfriends. Robert is a man and about 30 years old. He owns a record shop called Championship Vinyl. The shop is not running very well but Robert earns just enough money to keep the shop open. Two other men work at his shop. They are Robert's friends but they are not very important to the story.

When Robert finished telling about the past a new chapter starts called Now.

Laura, Robert's girlfriend, is about to leave him. Laura is a woman from Robert's age and she lives together with Robert in a apartment. The relationship between Robert and Laura is not very well at the moment and Laura falls in love with another man, the neighbour. Laura‘s new boyfriend has just moved to another house and she is going to live there too.

After Laura left Robert, Robert does not feel very good. At his shop he does not talk a lot and he cannot stop thinking about Laura. He starts calling her daily. Laura gets the creeps of Robert and tells him to call the police if he does not stop.

Then, at a night when Robert is drinking a beer with his friends at the local pub he sees Marie. She is a woman from New York and she sings songs at the pub. Robert thinks she is a good singer and buys a tape with her songs on it. They have a little chat and she asks him if he knows a record shop in the neigbourhood. He tells him about his shop and she decides to visit it at one of the upcoming days.

After Marie visited the shop, Bary, one of the two other men who also work in Robert‘s shop, tells Robert that they are invited to Marie‘s show at a bar called ‚The white lion‘.

At ‚The white lion‘ Marie sings her songs and when she is finished they drink some beers together. Robert likes Marie and she likes Robert. Robert takes Marie to his home and they talk a bit and listen some music. Later that night Robert and Marie have sex.

Robert is happy with Marie but he still can not forget what Laura did to him and he doubts if it is good to have a new relationship when he still has not forgotten the other he had before.

Then Robert gets a call from Laura, she is not very happy, her father just died. Laura invites Robert to come to the funeral.

After the funeral all the people go to the home of Laura‘s parents. Robert joins them.

He is still angry with Laura and they get a little quarrel. Robert cannot stand it any longer and runs out of the house and wants to go home.

Laura decides to follow Robert but Robert sees her and hides himself.

Finally Robert ends up by sitting together with Laura in her car. They talk about how they feel. Laura says she is not very happy with her new friend and Robert tells about Marie.

Robert and Laura still have special feelings for eachother and they decide to give their relationship a second try.

-Which techniques used the author?

The author wrote the story in a very ‚fast‘ way. There is not one moment of boredome in the story. Everytime there happens something or someone makes a very nice joke. A big part of the story consist of Robert‘s thoughts. These were sometimes a bit difficult for me to understand but they were interesting and kept the story ‚alive‘.

The place and time of the stroy are very important I think. This story is about feelings and the writer expressed the feelings by describing a place. When the writer described a rainy day, with a grey sky, fog and everything beпng dark, wet and cold