Juliet, Naked is the newest book by British author Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, Fever Pitch). It’s about a middle-aged English couple–Duncan & Annie–who live in a tiny, dead-end seaside town. Duncan is an obsessive fan of reclusive former American rocker Tucker Crowe, the self-appointed chieftain of Crowe’s fan domain online. Their lives start to intersect when Annie posts a scathing review of some old, rough recordings of Crowe’s major album that have come to the surface (much to the uncontained glee of Tucker Crowe-ologists like Duncan), and Tucker emails her about it.
I first read High Fidelity about 10 years ago, and loved it. And while I haven’t loved any of Hornby’s books as much as that first one, I always find his writing style so easy-going, engaging and accessible that I always rush out to read his newest. Juliet, Naked is one of the best in recent years.
You slip into Juliet, Naked, its stories and its characters like they’re old friends, even though the truth is you never met them before. The narrative perspective shifts often–from Duncan to Annie to Tucker–which can be one of my least favorite things. (I tend to find it jarring–you’ve gotten on board with Person A and now all of a sudden you have to shift gears and learn about Person B?) But Hornby is so talented, and does it with such ease, that it’s no problem to go from one character to the next. It’s just different people picking up the thread to continue the same story, and it compliments it, showing it from different perspectives.
In the end, Juliet, Naked is a nice easy piece of thoroughly modern fiction. Nothing earth-shattering, it didn’t change my life, and I would have liked a little more of the story before it ended, but still quite good.
Photo via Nickhornby.com
