Nick Hornby

High Fidelity and About a Boy are both funny movies. But as books, they’re hilarious. How to Be Good and A Long Way Down both made me smile, but they didn’t measure up.
The bottom line is that Nick Hornby is a very funny writer. He can set up great scenes, and he can build sympathy for unlikable losers. (Almost always. In A Long Way Down, I didn’t really care if a couple of them made it out of the suicide pact alive.)
When he stays on the funny stuff, he’s great.
But many of his characters eventually stiffen into props for “the lesson” that makes everyone happier and better. When it comes to waxing philosophical… well, Nick Hornby is a very funny man. It’s hard to imagine a sunnier stroll to nihilism.
Think of his books as longer, better-scripted episodes of Friends or Cheers. Laugh with them, but don’t expect to have them provide life’s answers.
If you’d like a sample of his wit without the underlying despair, check out 31 Songs. Hornby’s a good novelist, but he’s an excellent pop music reviewer, even if he doesn’t appreciate U2 as much as he should.