Juliet, Naked

Enjoyable and clever, it blasts society's obsession with "stars" while simultaneously taking a swing at the same self-absorbed stars. Hornby has a delightful knack with metaphor and simile that ensures the writing always dances. The story here goes flat in places, like the characters, and also seems to reinforce the star-worship it simultaneously decries, but it's painted so well that you'll have fun reading it anyway.

An entertaining an insightful book. Hornby captures, in a way that I have not read in another work of fiction, some essential truths about the way the Internet functions these days: the connectedness, the cloak of anonymity, the niche expertise. It also deals with some of Hornby's basic themes of growing up and music. Plus it contains a good plot to keep things moving along. His female characters are once again a bit weaker, but that's a minor quibble.