Everyone’s Reading Bastard

Nick Hornby is one of the greatest living writers of our time, but it does take a bit of a suspension of disbelief to read Everyone’s Reading Bastard. The concept: imagine one’s ex writing a weekly column about your short-comings. Yikes! It hit too close to home (or rather work) for me-the libel laws in the UK are more stringent than the US so I just couldn’t believe that any reputable paper would permit it. If you can suspend disbelief or get past your discomfort at the premise, it is an amazing short story about accepting one’s foibles, learning not to repeat them, discovering what moments are important to you and what that says about you. There is a dash of current political economic current events to make it relevant, but it may just make it dated.