High Fidelity

By: Nick Hornby

Narrated by: David Cale

Length: 3 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner, Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award

A New York Times Notable Book

Rob is a pop music junkie who runs his own semi-failing record store in London. His girlfriend, Laura, has just left him for the guy upstairs, and Rob is both miserable and relieved. After all, could he have spent his life with someone who has a bad record collection? Rob seeks refuge in the company of the clerks at his store who endlessly review their top five films (Reservoir Dogs...), top five Elvis Costello songs (Alison...), and top five episodes of Cheers (the one where Woody sang his stupid song to Kelly...). Rob tries dating a singer whose rendition of "Baby, I Love Your Way" makes him cry. But maybe its just that he's always wanted to sleep with someone who has a record contract. Then he sees Laura again. And Rob begins to think (awful as it sounds) that a life as an episode of thirtysomething, with all the kids and marriages and barbecues and k.d. lang CDs that this implies, might not be so bad.

©1995 Nick Hornby (P)1998 Putnam Berkley Audio

Critic reviews

"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." (Library Journal)

"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." (Booklist)

Why abridged?

Why on gods green earth would you abridge a book? totally senseless thing to do....the remaining part was good. love hornby.

Voices

I did not like the voices for the other characters, especially the voices for the women!

Enjoyable

Admittedly, I was iffy because it was abridged. I'm glad I listened anyway.

I've loved the movie but haven't had the time to read the book. I will now.

Good narration and great story.

A G

Although I read this title in print, I absolutely loved it. Nick Hornby is one of the best contemporary authors out there and high fidelity is what launched his career. Great book!

Men are morons

Like many people, I suspect, I came across this book after seeing the Americanized hollywood movie version first. The two are very different. As one would expect. But I think the screenwriter of the movie version did a much better job of making the main character, Rob seem likable. You can forgive his idiotic approach to relationships because in the movie he's also a record-collection-cataloging-obsessed, top-five-list-making nerd played by the highly likable John Cusak. In the book, he's just a moron. Immature. Sex-centric. Self-absorbed. The book and the movie, however, suffer from the same fatal flaw: they put the characters through a set of circumstances that are highly unlikely, given human behavior. I recall in both viewing and reading, stopping myself and saying, "that character would never do that!" Rob and his girlfriend, Laura both seem to make choices for the sake of the story line instead of choices that they would make in real life scenarios. That said, Hornby is such a good story teller that it's hard to fault this book for entertainment value and readability. It's like eating popcorn. Very little nutritional value, but rather tasty.

What They Said...

I loved this BOOK in it’s entirety. The whole book and story is a five star story. I have read the book and was ready to revisit it. Why is there only an abridged version? Why, if you are going to abridge it would you take out so much of what made the character what he was? Weird things dropped in with no context! This was my first go at an abridged book, so maybe that is how it works.
The narrator should NOT try other accents or voices. And, if he is going to do them, do them all and do them well or do none. Why do one female Southern American accent and not do any other female voices for example? He uses several male voices and accents.
I think he recorded this book once and didn’t like it and recorded it again over the same file. You hear his own voice echo his words often. Other times he sounds like he is reading in the car.
I read all of these reviews before I downloaded the book and thought to myself, “Self, many books and movies that have received bad reviews turned out being good, just go for it!”
But... “What they said, really.”

Brilliant story, abysmal performance.

Instant classic, very accurate capture of the time. Such a shame that the voice acting was so underwhelming, grim, and downright annoying when the secondary characters were being portrayed.

Love it except for one thing

I love this book completely with one exception....the narrator's "southern drawl" is intolerable. But the good news is that character's appearances are sparse, so its worth suffering through.

Realistic, Hilarious Writing & Fantastic Narrator

Yes, as some of the listeners have pointed out, the narrator's take on the Southern accent was lacking. Luckily, those were a minor character's few lines. The rest he did beautifully-the main character's middle class British, the intonations of his ex-girlfriends, and he especially brought his employees' comical speech to life. I absolutely loved him.

Nick Hornby, of course, is brilliant. A listener commented that this novel is basically about men being pigs. That listener completely missed the point and took the book too literally. This is about how selfish and misguided we all can be in relationships and life-how at our most basic, we all ask-what's in this for me, can I get better? Hornby does this artfully, with British self-deprecating, practical, tongue-in-cheek humor, with great understanding of people and relationships, and with realism. You won't find corny sentimentality here.

TOP 5

What made the experience of listening to High Fidelity the most enjoyable?

Hilarious, engaging, feels like watching the movie for the first time. It might not actually be in my top 5, but I think I've listened to it more times than any other audiobook.

What does David Cale bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I don't understand the reviews that knock the narrator. I think he does an awesome job. I love his delivery. I was at the gym recently listening to this book for probably the fifth time and it still had me laughing out loud in parts.