Juliet, Naked (Paperback)

Staff Reviews

— Penguin Random House

Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked had me grinning like an idiot from start to finish. In an English seaside town, a 40-ish couple is in their fifteenth year of a relationship long on routine and short on passion. Duncan runs a website devoted to Tucker Crowe, a critically acclaimed but somewhat obscure singer-songwriter from the 70's and 80's, who quit music in the middle of the tour for his album, Juliet, one of the great break-up records of all time. He has never been heard from since. Annie likes Tucker Crowe's music but barely tolerates Duncan's obsession, one that places him on a precarious rung on the ladder of the poorly socialized. When a previously unknown, bare bones (thus naked) demo of Juliet falls into Duncan's lap, he posts an ecstatic review on his site. Annie, who is starting to wonder if she has wasted her life with a serial loser, posts a comment taking issue. Enter Tucker Crowe. Hornby has created an intelligent, oblivious sad sack in Duncan but it is Annie who is the clear heroine in this huge-hearted novel. Only an author who truly loves women could have come up with her. Hornby is a master of the comic novel and in my book the comic is as essential as the serious. This very funny novel is more thought-provoking than most serious novels I have read. Likewise, this thought-provoking novel was brilliantly funny and pure pleasure to read. I experienced pure pleasure AND my thoughts were provoked. You think that's easy? You have to be good. Thank you, Nick Hornby, for being so good. — Stan Hynds