SubscribeJuliet, Naked
-
Juliet, Naked
by Nick Hornby - Publisher: Riverhead
- Year: 2009
- Pages: 416
- See the rest of this year's listings
- What is 52 Books in 52 Weeks?
- №14
Like a lot of readers, my impression of Nick Hornby is most influenced by High Fidelity, which is still widely considered his best novel. I can’t say for certain, but I suspect that the book’s popularity has not a little to do with its treatment of minutiae: the plot itself is somewhat tepid romantic comedy fare, but the tangents about pop records are delivered with such a characteristic force that one can’t help but pay attention.
Juliet, Naked attempts to recapture some of that juju. It’s the story of Tucker Crowe, a somewhat obscure indie musician from the 70s and 80s who very suddenly left the music scene (and any sort of public persona) after a mysterious incident in the bathroom of a Minnesota nightclub. For the next twenty years, a gaggle of his most devoted fans have speculated about his life, the cause of his exit, the merits of his music, and theories about his current whereabouts. To readers somewhat familiar with the indie rock scene, that kind of underground obsession is a familiar phenomenon—the tendency of the fanatical is to impose genius upon the mysterious. Hornby’s status as a cognoscente of the pop music scene gives the story a certain sense of slick verisimilitude that works well.
Friday Random Ten CLXXXV
The “getting rusty” edition.
- Coheed & Cambria – [Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV #13] The Willing Well II – From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness
- Matchbox Twenty – [Yourself or Someone Like You #05] Girl Like That
- Dream Theater – [When Dream And Day Unite #04] The Killing Hand
- The Samuel Jackson Five – [Easily Misunderstood #07] No Name
- Opeth – [Orchid #08] Into The Frost Of Winter
- Nightingale – [The Breathing Shadow #02] Sleep…
- Havergal Brian – [Symphony No. 1 "Gothic" CD2 #07] VI. Te ergo quaesumus
- Queens of the Stone Age – [Era Vulgaris #04] Into The Hollow
- Borknagar – [Quintessence #02] The Presence Is Ominous
- Black Ox Orkestar – [Nisht Azoy #05] Ratsekr Grec
Interesting sidenote: Matchbox 20’s Yourself or Someone Like You was my favorite album from about 1996 until 2000; even then, it remained among my top ten rock/pop albums of all time (still does—and to my unending consternation, no Matchbox 20 album since then has come anywhere close to replicating the phenomenon).
Friday Random Ten CLXXXIV
The “Philadelphia tomorrow” edition.
- Andrew Bird – [Weather Systems #02] I
- Farmakon – [A Warm Glimpse #05] Same
- The Polyphonic Spree – [The Fragile Army #06] Section 26 [We Crawl]
- Souvenir’s Young America – [An Ocean Without Water #03] Dark Was the Night Cold Was the Ground
- Tool – [Undertow #09] Flood
- The Smashing Pumpkins – [Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness CD1 #12] Muzzle
- Spiritual Beggars – [Ad Astra #12] Mantra
- Sergei Rachmaninov – [24 Preludes, Sonata No. 2 CD1 #07] Prelude, op.23 no.6 in E flat major
- Ours – [Distorted Lullabies #01] Fallen Souls
- Oasis – [(What's the Story) Morning Glory? #05] Hey Now!
Friday Random Ten CLXXXIII
The “Windows 7″ edition.
- Radiation 4 – [Wonderland #06] John vs. The Elephant
- Stars – [Do You Trust Your Friends? #11] He Lied About Death (Metric)
- VAST – [Visual Audio Sensory Theater #11] Untitled
- Ulver – [Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven & Hell CD1 #10] A Memorable Fancy, Plates 12-13
- Té – [It Be The Thinking As 'the Song' Of Realistic Sound From The World Which Resounds #10] Human Being Is Doing The Ability That Destroys Self Oneself By Reason ‘有’
- Ben Folds – [Ben Folds Live #08] Fred Jones Part 2
- Atheist – [Piece Of Time #07] Why Brother?
- Grails – [Doomsdayer's Holiday #01] Doomsdayer’s Holiday
- Nine Inch Nails – [Purest Feeling #09] Down In It
- Tori Amos – [Scarlet's Walk #05] Carbon
Friday Random Ten CLXXXII
The “RIP, Leo Frankowski” edition.
- Forcefeed – [Soil #01] Soil
- Aereogramme – [My Heart Has A Wish That You Would Not Go #01] Conscious Life For Coma Boy
- VAST – [Nude #03] Don’t Take Your Love Away
- Frédéric Chopin – [Complete Collection [disc 13 of 17] #02] Sonata No.1 Op.4 in C minor – II. Menuetto – Allegretto
- Arcturus – [Aspera Hiems Symfonia, Constellation, My Angel CD1 #02] Wintry Grey
- Estradasphere – [Palace of Mirrors #04] The Terrible Beautypower Of Meow
- Virgin Black – [Requiem - Mezzo Forte #04] …and I am Suffering
- Insomnium – [In the Halls of Awaiting #03] Medeia
- World’s End Girlfriend – [Hurtbreak Wonderland #04] Grass Ark
- Efterklang – [Tripper #03] Step Aside
Friday Random Ten CLXXXII
The “swing and a miss” edition
- Missy Higgins – [On A Clear Night #09] Peachy
- Mogwai – [Come on Die Young #02] Cody
- Opeth – [My Arms, Your Hearse #02] April Ethereal
- Joaquin Rodrigo – [Concierto de Aranjuez (Romero) #10] Invocation et danse: 2. Allegro moderato: Polo
- Nightingale – [I #02] Still In The Dark
- Foo Fighters – [There Is Nothing Left To Lose #09] Headwires
- Swarm Of The Lotus – [When White Becomes Black #09] Episode Infinity
- Jason Falkner – [Presents Author Unknown #05] She Goes To Bed
- Michael Jackson – [Bad #04] Liberian Girl
- Gustav Mahler – [The Complete Symphonies CD9 #01] Symphony No.7 in E Minor – 1a. Langsam (Adagio)
Recent Comments
-
Nice review, Ben. I actually hadn’t heard of this book, but I might have to look for it. True SF...
-
If you mean the current, theme, I can’t take the credit for that. It’s Renegade, by...
-
I’ve just stumbled upon your site and wanted to tell you how great I think your...
-
just found out about the other book myself, waiting for it to be delivered. i dont blame you for...
-
It’s interesting that the filmmakers (or the screenwriter) made the decision to approach the...
-
