Juliet, Naked

After returning to Gooleness, the dismal seaside town in North-Eastern England where they live, Duncan receives a CD of 'Juliet, Naked', an album of solo acoustic demos of the songs on 'Juliet'. Annie opens it first and listens to it on her own. Duncan is angry, especially when she expresses her dislike for it. He writes an enthusiastic review for the fan website he is a member of. Annie writes a passionate article criticising it and receives an email response from Tucker Crowe himself. Further email correspondence ensues, much of which consumes Annie's thoughts. Tucker Crowe is in Pennsylvania preparing for a visit from his daughter Lizzie whom he has never seen before. He has five children from four relationships, and his youngest son Jackson and Jackson's mother Cat are the only ones he lives with. Lizzie reveals she is pregnant and this has caused the visit. Duncan meets a new colleague called Gina, whom he sleeps with. He tells Annie of his affair and she insists he move out. The next day Annie talks to her judgmental therapist Malcolm. Duncan regrets leaving Annie but she refuses to take him back. Cat breaks up with Tucker but Tucker remains looking after Jackson. Annie places a photo of Tucker and Jackson on her fridge and invites Duncan round to make him see it, gleeful that he doesn't know the significance, and tells him she is in a relationship with him. She ponders the years she has wasted with Duncan and ends up going to the pub with her friend Ros, during which she meets Gav and Barnesy, northern soul dancers. Barnesy comes back to her house and tells her he loves her but she says she won't sleep with him and he leaves. Annie discusses the incident the next day with Malcolm. Tucker discovers that Lizzie has lost the baby and Cat talks him into visiting Lizzie. On arrival in London, Tucker has a heart attack and is taken into the hospital. Lizzie invites all his children and ex-wives to visit for a family reunion. A mini-narrative describes the events which caused Tucker to end his career after hearing that he had a daughter, Grace from the relationship before/during Julie. Annie visits him in the hospital and he suggests staying at her house to avoid the family reunion. The next day Annie visits again and they do, though Annie discovers he had not yet met with Grace. Tucker tells her about Grace and Juliet and Annie insists he call his family. They discuss his work; Tucker sees it as inauthentic rubbish while Annie thinks it's deep and meaningful music while clarifying that while the music is good it doesn't mean that Tucker as a person is good. She also admits that she was in a relationship with Duncan, whom Tucker knows of from the website. Annie encourages Tucker to meet Duncan but he refuses. The next day they bump into Duncan. Tucker introduces himself but Duncan doesn't believe him. After considering it, Duncan comes over and Tucker shows Duncan his passport as proof. They have tea together and Tucker clarifies some of Duncan's beliefs about him, while Duncan expresses his love of his music. Grace calls Tucker. She says she understands how he and she can't be close because it would mean giving up 'Juliet'. An exhibition Annie has been working on opens at the Gooleness museum, where she works as a curator. She suggests that Tucker could open it but the councillor in charge says he's never heard of him and invites Gav and Barnsey (two local Northern Soul dancers) to do it instead. At the party Annie admits to Tucker that she likes him romantically and afterwards they have sex. Annie says she has used a contraceptive but didn't. Tucker and Jackson return to America. Annie tells Malcolm about it all and tells him that she would like to sell her house and move right away to America to join Tucker and Jackson. Malcolm's paternalistic comment lets her realize that she's cured. She can then leave him. In the epilogue, Duncan and other fans review on the fan website a new release from Tucker, which they think is terrible because 'Happiness Is Poison', as one of them writes. Only one new member says she and her husband love the new album, while they find 'Juliet' gloomy for their liking. There's a summary I borrowed from Wikipedia. I just wanted to give my opinion on the book after that. A book about obsession with a singer who hasn't performed in over 15 years, and his last album, called Juliet, is considered by his obsessive fans to be the best work of art ever made. Then, a "bootleg" copy of Juliet comes out, one that was an acoustic and earlier version of the songs on Juliet comes out. Duncan is so eager to post a positive review and to be the first in his little community to do it that he becomes a little too enthusiastic about a record that became another record, and that record being seen as far superior upon closer examination. This guy owns all the bootlegs of almost every performance this Tucker Crowe ever sang at. A lot of people have obsessions with particular bands, especially ones that disappeared suddenly for one reason or another. I know that I am guilty of this when it comes to the ska-punk band Sublime. I own everything they've ever put out, before and after the lead singer's death. So I know the mindset of this guy, but I don't make it my whole life, like he has. Very interesting novel about obsession and how it can cause you to do crazy things, like cheat on your partner of 15 years because the person you talked to liked the album your partner did not. And the funniest part was that his partner of 15 years ends up with Tucker Crowe. Ha, irony? Funny book, and interesting as hell to read.

This is my first Nick Hornby book (although I liked the movie High Fidelity, which I hear is pretty close in flavor to the book), but I only picked JULIET, NAKED up because it was recommended by an author I follow. I wont go into the plot, you can get the basic idea from the the blurb on the back of the book. What I will say is that JULIET, NAKED was a bit of a slow start for me, albeit I was intrigued enough by the bizarre obsession of Duncan's, to continue on with the book.. kinda like being unable to turn away from a crazy person on the street corner shouting out randomness that you really should make your way past them as quickly as possible, but are just unable to stop staring. This particular situation in real life can end disastrously and even dangerously, but fortunately in a book there are two outcomes.. a waste of a few ours or a pleasant surprise. I'm happy to report, for me anyway, it was the latter... by page 174 of 406, I was still reading.. and smiling. Now having completed JULIET, NAKED through blurry tear filled eyes (laughing tears) I found Hornby's writing to be truly artful, giving the reader sympathy and even respect and understanding for a character (Duncan) that in another book might only be seen as egotistical, pathetic and sad. Annie was enduring, likable and relatable. I enjoyed the cultural differences, stereotypes and point of views between American and British, but ageing raw ex-rockstar Tucker Crowe was my cherry on top. This novel is warm, hysterically funny and thought provoking; as Hornby draws you into the lives, relationships, self-evaluation and regrets of three very different people, all at a kind of cross roads in their lives. Very well done, the music references are excellent.. I highly recommend JULIET, NAKED and plan to check out more of Hornby's work. Hmm.. a wittier, more modern and much more exposed and entertaining Sleepless in Seattle with a rock'n roll edge?.. yes?.. no?.. well maybe, maybe not, but very entertaining nun the less; with enough similarities in the general plot to bring the movie to mind anyhow.

Juliet, Naked is another of Hornby's books in which music frequents the storyline. The main characters are all combined through Tucker Crowe, a has-been of a musician who is spending his life in hiding living off various wives and girlfriends, the latest of which is Cat, mother to the apple of his eye, Jackson. The story forms around Annie and Duncan, a couple who are obviously with each other because they can put up with one another and don't want to be alone. Duncan's obsession with Tucker makes it seem as though there are three in the relationship. When Tuckers "new" album comes about and Annie disagrees with Duncan's view of the album the cracks start to show in their relationship until eventually Duncan leaves. Tucker and Annie come together through the review Annie writes about the album online. The review is different to the usually fanatics and as the story develops Tucker gets in touch with Annie and the two become closer. The story is, in my personal view, brilliant; I understand the dull drone of life for Annie as she wonders through it in a boring seaside town. Perhaps as I come from a bring town myself. As for Duncan there's times when I want to shout at him for being such a boring git or just not appreciating what he's got with Annie. Tucker is also a lively character and I believe he's that type of guy who one minute you can love and the next think he's a prick. The realistic nature of the characters come through brilliantly but I do think, as other reviews have suggested, there is an age of reader who will associate with the novel more than others. As a younger reader, in my very early twenties, I don't think I got the most out of the novel as I have done other Hornby classics. I was sat thinking throughout a lot of the beginning of the novel that Annie should just leave Duncan and couldn't believe that he left her and spent a lot of time wondering how Tucker Crowe managed to get all the women he had seemed to accumulate over the years, however then realised that if I met a guy out of a band and I was single I'd probably want to get to know him too! Also the relationship that Tucker has with his family, especially his children didn't get me interested and I found myself being very annoyed at him because of this - maybe as I'm more the children's age perhaps? However these downsides only made me think more about the characters and the background that you don't get from the novel. I would love to read Hornby's notes and see if the ideas about their backgrounds I have match with what their creator had in mind. I think Juliet, Naked, is a great read, even if it's not Hornby's greatest work, but let's face it, there are high expectations in any of his new works!

Zu Beginn der Lektüre (des englischen Originals) war ich etwas befremdet: die Geschichte über eine leicht skurrile Fangemeinde eines amerikanischen Singer-Songwriters namens Tucker Crowe, der Mitte der 80er Jahre unter mysteriösen Umständen seine bis dahin nicht wirklich ertragreiche Karriere beendet hatte und sich aus dem öffentlichen Leben zurückgezogen hatte, klang zunächst wie eine bei englischsprachigen Autoren beliebte Fingerübung: man nehme einen relativ unbekannten Künstler, dieser wird von einem kunstbeflissenen Anhängen wider Erwarten aufgespürt und ein bis dahin gut gehütetes und Legenden bildendes Geheimnis wird (möglicherweise) aufgedeckt. Zum Glück: es kam anders. Der vermeintliche Anführer der Fangemeinde, Duncan, unternimmt mit seiner Lebensgefährtin Annie eine Reise durch die USA und zwar entlang der markanten Stationen, die die Karriere von Tucker Crowe geprägt haben, darunter der Ort, an dem er sein Dasein als Musiker an den Nagel hängte, das Haus einer besungenen Angebeten, Julie, die dem berühmtesten Album Crowes, Juliet, die Grundlage gab, und andere Plätze, die gemeinhin kein herkömmlicher Tourist jemals hätte finden wollen geschweige denn können. Annie ist jedoch mit der Beziehung zu Duncan unzufrieden und dies gipfelt darin, als sie zur unerwarteten Neuerscheinung eines Albums von Crowe, einer akustischen Version von Juliet, genannt Juliet, Naked, eine Meinung postuliert, die diametral entgegengesetzt zu der steht, die Duncan in das Forum der Fangemeinde gepostet hat. Duncan sieht die gemeinsame Basis dadurch beschädigt, begeht sogar einen Seitensprung, der, als er ihn beichtet, zur endgültigen Trennung führt. Das alles wäre als Gesellschaftsstudie schon interessant und durch die wunderschöne und metaphorische, selbst für nur gelegentlich englisch Lesende gut verständliche und doch komplexe Sprache Hornbys auch lesenswert. Aber er setzt natürlich noch einen drauf und offenbart Tucker Crowes wirkliches Leben. Dieser offenbar sich unter einem Pseudonym gegenüber Annie und ab da nehmen die Dinge einen regelrecht chaotischen Verlauf. Crowe muss sich auf einmal mit der Kollision zwischen seiner Künstleridentität und der Realität, aber auch mit seinen zahlreichen Verfehlungen als Ehepartner und vielfacher Vater auseinander setzen – von denen die Fangemeinde selbstverständlich nichts ahnt –, besucht sogar Annie in England und sieht sich auf einmal mit einem Vielfachen an menschlicher und künstlerischer Verantwortung konfrontiert, als mit der Menge, die er eigentlich zu ertragen bereit gewesen wäre. Das Ende muss natürlich offen bleiben, aber es kann durchaus verraten werden, dass Hornby ganz meisterhaft immer weitere Häutungen der Zwiebel namens Wahrheit vornimmt, ohne am Ende zu einer allgemeingültigen Lösung zu führen, dabei immer wieder Gesprächssequenzen und Situationsschilderungen einstreut, die regelrecht zum lauten Hinauslachen animieren, aber trotzdem die ganze menschliche, emotionale Tragik aller Beteiligten nicht unberücksichtigt lässt. In der Reihe der zahlreichen Hornby-Romane ist Juliet, Naked sicher nicht mein Lieblingsroman, aber er zeigt bei einem scheinbar langweiligen Thema sein ganzes Können und der Leser muss sich immer wieder dazu bekennen, vorschnelle Schlüsse gezogen zu haben, die im Laufe der Geschichte widerlegt werden.

Mr. Hornby’s lost a bit of his bite in his old age, but, a bit like Tucker Crowe, I suppose that’s the whole point :)

Es muy ameno y trata el tema de las relaciones de pareja después de un tiempo de una forma divertida, también trata el tema de la mitomanía. Está bien para leer en verano y en la playa

Une comédie contemporaine qui m'a plu mais qui pourrait ne pas plaire aux lecteurs qui n'apprécient pas le ton léger qui caractérise souvent un certain style de cinéma britannique et/ou américain.