High Fidelity

出版者:Riverhead Hardcover

作者:Nick Hornby

页数:323

出版时间:1995-08-30

价格:USD 21.95

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9781573220163

具体描述

Amazon.com Review

It has been said often enough that baby boomers are a television generation, but the very funny novel High Fidelity reminds that in a way they are the record-album generation as well. This funny novel is obsessed with music; Hornby's narrator is an early-thirtysomething English guy who runs a London record store. He sells albums recorded the old-fashioned way--on vinyl--and is having a tough time making other transitions as well, specifically adulthood. The book is in one sense a love story, both sweet and interesting; most entertaining, though, are the hilarious arguments over arcane matters of pop music.

From Publishers Weekly

British journalist Hornby has fashioned a disarming, rueful and sometimes quite funny first novel that is not quite as hip as it wishes to be. The book dramatizes the romantic struggle of Rob Fleming, owner of a vintage record store in London. After his girlfriend, Laura, leaves him for another man, he realizes that he pines not for sexual ecstasy (epitomized by a "bonkus mirabilis" in his past) but for the monogamy this cynic has come to think of as a crime. He takes comfort in the company of the clerks at the store, whose bantering compilations of top-five lists (e.g., top five Elvis Costello songs; top-five films) typify the novel's ingratiating saturation in pop culture. Sometimes this can pall: readers may find that Rob's ruminations about listening to the Smiths and the Lemonheads?pop music helps him fall in love, he tells us?are more interesting than his list of five favorite episodes of Cheers. Rob takes comfort as well in the company of a touring singer, Marie La Salle, who is unpretentious and "pretty in that nearly cross-eyed American way"?but life becomes more complicated when he encounters Laura again. Hornby has earned his own place on the London bestseller lists, and this on-the-edge tale of musical addiction just may climb the charts here. First serial to Esquire.

Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Rob Fleming is the kind of person whose mindset is clearly shown by his top two career choices: journalist for the New Musical Express, 1976-79, and producer for Atlantic Records, circa 1964-71. Owner of a small London record shop and musical snob of a high degree, Rob finds his life thrown into turmoil when live-in girlfriend Laura suddenly leaves. He embarks on a journey through the past, tracking down old lovers while finding solace with Marie, an American folk/country singer living in London, even as he yearns for Laura's return. Told in an engaging first-person voice that blends sarcasm with self-deprecating humor, High Fidelity presents a painfully funny take on love, music, and growing up. Already a best seller in Britain, this stunningly assured first novel should be a hit here as well.?Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.

Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Journalist Hornby's very funny first novel has already hit the best-seller lists in London and with good reason. In a candid, engaging narrative voice, 35-year-old pop-music fanatic Rob, the owner of a vintage record shop who has just broken up with his longtime girlfriend, attempts to ease his misery by giving an account of his top-five most memorable split-ups. He also consoles himself by coming up with a new filing system for his vast record collection (arranging them according to the order in which he bought them) and by engaging, with his two Wayne and Garth^-like employees, in endless rounds of list making, including best music to play at a funeral ("Many Rivers to Cross," Jimmy Cliff . . . ), top-five dream jobs (producer, Atlantic Records, 1964^-71 . . . ), and five favorite records of all time ("So Tired of Being Alone," Al Green . . . ). Hornby's amazingly accomplished debut should definitely appeal to music fans (and snobs), but it's his literate, painfully honest riffs on romantic humiliation and heartbreak that make the book so special. A rare, touching glimpse of the masculine view of affairs of the heart. Joanne Wilkinson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Nick Hornby was born in 1957 and worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer. His books are FEVER PITCH (1992), HIGH FIDELITY (1995) and ABOUT A BOY (1998). In 1999 he won an E. M. Forster award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in north London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

British working-class literature often shocks Americans with its psychological cruelty and vulgarity. In this sly, humorous and somewhat softened example, author Hornby gives us a sympathetic look at flawed a young hero fumbling toward manliness. High Fidelity's narrator/protagonist--a callow young record store owner obsessed with the politics of his disappointing sex life--admits to being "self-centered, blind and stupid." At times, cockney David Cale seems excruciatingly dull and dense; at other times, to have dug deeper into his characters' angst than the author has. He also misses much of the humor in the story. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

作者简介

Nick Hornby is the author of the novels A Long Way Down, How to Be Good (a New York Times bestseller), High Fidelity, and About a Boy, and of the memoir Fever Pitch. He is also the author of Songbook, a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and editor of the short-story collection Speaking with the Angel. He is also the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award, and the Orange Word International Writers London Award 2003.

用户评价

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读完这本书，我有一种被带入到一个完全陌生但又似曾相识的“地下世界”的体验。它巧妙地融合了都市传说和心理悬疑的元素，但核心探讨的依然是个体在面对巨大社会结构时的无力感。作者构建的世界观非常宏大且富有想象力，充满了奇特的、半秘密的社群和仪式，这些元素使得故事充满了神秘的吸引力。叙事采用了第一人称，视角非常独特且不可靠，你必须时刻警惕叙述者是否在隐藏真相，这种不确定性极大地增强了阅读的紧张感和趣味性。书中对于“知识的边界”和“被禁止的探索”的描绘令人着迷，主角为了追求某个真相而付出的代价，也反映了人类对未知事物永恒的好奇心。这本书在情节上的安排非常紧凑，每一个章节的结尾都设置了一个悬念点，让人欲罢不能，恨不得一口气读完。尽管它有着引人入胜的曲折情节，但它在情感层面上处理得相对克制，角色之间的复杂关系更多是通过行动而非直接的内心表白来展现的，这需要读者自己去拼凑和解读。总而言之，这是一本结构精巧、想象力奔放，非常适合寻求刺激和深度谜团的读者的佳作。

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我最近读到的这本书，给我的整体感受是极其压抑却又引人入胜，它像是一个精心布置的迷宫，你明知出口遥远，却忍不住想探究每一个转角后的景象。这本书的魅力在于其氛围的营造，作者对环境的描摹简直是大师级的，那种阴郁、潮湿、充满着未竟事业气息的城市角落，仿佛成了角色们内心焦虑的物理投射。主要人物的行动逻辑充满了矛盾性，他们渴望稳定，却又不断地自我破坏；他们向往真诚，却又习惯性地用谎言来保护自己脆弱的自尊心。书中的情感张力积累得非常缓慢，不是那种爆发式的戏剧冲突，而是像高压锅里的蒸汽一样，一点点地增加压力，直到最后达到一个令人窒息的临界点。我花了好些时间才理解作者的用意——他似乎在探讨的是一种“选择的瘫痪”，在过多的可能性面前，人反而失去了行动的能力。这本书的文字密度很高，充满了隐喻和象征，需要细细品味，初读时可能会错过很多精妙的设计。它不是一本让人放松的书，它要求你投入百分之百的注意力去解构每一个场景、每一句对白背后潜藏的象征意义。对于喜欢深度解读和文学挑战的读者来说，这无疑是一场盛宴。