“Juliet, Naked,” by Nick Hornby (Riverhead Books, $26) One of Nick Hornby’s many strengths — others including making complex themes accessible and being very, very funny — is his ability to create believable modern male characters.
He seems to especially have an ear for the sort of guy who is a bit of a slacker, men trapped in a protracted adolescence with no commitments or relationships more dear than the one they have with their record collection.
In novels such as “High Fidelity” and “About A Boy,” Hornby managed to turn such characters into, kind of, the hero. In “Juliet, Naked,” he makes this character (in this case, a teacher named Duncan) a bit of dolt and much less likeable. In fact, he crafts a tale that is every nebbish obsessive’s nightmare (no, I’m not going to give it away).
The hero here is his long-suffering girlfriend, Annie. She has stuck with Duncan as his adolescent obsession with a reclusive musician, Tucker Crowe, has extended into his 30s. Thanks to the Internet, Duncan regularly chats with Crowe fans, all of whom have spent decades analyzing Crowe’s greatest record, “Juliet.” Crowe quit the music business in 1986, soon after its release.
When Duncan decides to leave Annie, she slowly builds a new life — part of which involves corresponding with Crowe. And then she learns about “Juliet, Naked,” an acoustic version of the classic record — which gets Duncan’s attention. Complications ensue, but the best part of the book is how it examines the world of obsessive fans and the struggles of everyone — from rock musicians to your ordinary, “average” person — to make the most of their talents and their lives.