Instead of fulminating about headscarves, the American Angry Guy does things like send e-mails with what he imagines to be devastating ripostes to, say, any female writing for an online magazine who dares to suggest that a woman's lot might consist of something more than pregnancy and bare feet. In America, the Angry Guy is every bit as resentful as David but much less cautious.

The specimen that Hornby has under consideration here, then, is the quintessential Angry Guy, albeit what seems to be a peculiarly British variation on the breed. We walk in, and then Andrew says that so-and-so's a wanker and his new book is awful, and you say that the new film by somebody else is unintentionally hilarious - even though nine times out of ten I know for a fact that you haven't seen it - and Cam and I sit there smiling and sometimes laughing if you're being funny instead of just plain nasty, and then you get drunk and tell Andrew he's a genius, and he gets drunk and tells you you're a genius, and then we go home. Katie half wishes he'd undergo a 'violent political conversion' and become a conservative ranting about 'poofs and communists' because 'it must be very unsatisfying to have such tiny outlets for his enormous torrent of rage.' Here's how she describes to David a typical evening with their friends Andrew and Cam: Permanently.' Katie works as a doctor in a North London clinic, providing most of the financial support for David and their two children, Tom and Molly, while David writes a column called 'The Angriest Man in Holloway' (that's the liberal-minded neighborhood where the family lives) and labors over a mean-spirited satirical novel about a 'touchy-feely' company that 'sells banana elbow cream and Brie foot lotion and lots of other amusingly useless cosmetics.'ĭavid devotes his journalistic energies to denouncing such modern-day annoyances as grievance counselors, old people who don't have their fare ready when they board a bus, 'women who wear headscarves,' homeopaths and restaurant critics. Nick Hornby has won renown for his hilarious and painfully accurate portraits of certain types of contemporary men in books such as 'High Fidelity,' 'Fever Pitch' and 'About a Boy.' His new novel, 'How to Be Good,' is narrated by a woman, Katie Carr, but she's (unhappily) married to a perfect candidate for the Hornby treatment: David, whom she describes as 'the definition of aggrieved.

How to be good by nick hornby