After Work - Reading JULIET NAKED

With fine contemporary humour, Nick Hornby draws us into several lives in which nothing seems to happen; yet, by the end of the story, the characters’ very selves have changed irrevocably. The title of the novel, Juliet Naked, is also the title of a band’s “break-up” album, revered by a dedicated or perhaps obsessed scattering of fans who chat on the internet. Duncan is one of the leaders, minutely dissecting every word and possible allusion in the works of the reclusive musician, Tucker Crowe.

Rather, Crowe’s absent persona misleads his fans into the interpretation that he is reclusive. Actually, having given up on music and the attendant life-style, he just doesn’t respond to his fans or the media. Almost without thought, Annie writes a review of one of his albums to annoy Duncan. Annie and Duncan have lived together for fifteen years in a small, depressingly middle-class, seaside town in Britain. From across the ocean of internet connections, Tucker responds to Annie’s post on the Tucker Crowe fan site.

What should she do? This is the central question of Annie’s current existence. She doesn’t like her job much. Her relationship with Duncan has faded into living in the same house, not living together. She has lost her motivation and sense of direction. Author Nick Hornby’s admirable skill is to find universal yearnings and disappointments in the dilemmas of the friendly but rather pathetic Annie.

Tucker Crowe and the website fandom form wonderful commentaries on the rock scene and the ability of people to connect in very superficial ways on the Web. Although excessive analysis of artists and their work has plagued every age, fleeting fame has its own “long tail” on the internet. Nothing is too trivial and nothing disappears. But are the fans wrong? Unlike Tucker himself, they hurt no one. Only people who are interested read their articles and posts and emails. They do “talk” to each other, which is somewhat better than possibly an even more depersonalized isolation without Web connections.

Or is it better? Nick Hornby leads us through the labyrinth of modern human relations. Some people get on with their lives. Some people just live where they are. In this novel, Annie must decide which kind of person she is.