Amidst a rant about men’s sexual challenges, he asks, “What do women have to worry about? A handful of cellulite? Join the club. The novel wants us to feel sorry for a man who attempts (and fails) to show how hard it is for straight men. About this, he says: “I feel so much better, in fact, that I go straight out and sleep with Marie.” Like the hypocrite he is. Early on, when Laura confirms she hasn’t slept with Ian, Rob goes ahead and has sex with American singer-songwriter Marie LaSalle. He obsesses over whether Laura thinks sex with Ian (the man she leaves Rob for) is better. But any self-awareness he has fades in the face of his musical pretentiousness, incessant insecurity, and stunted compassion. I am a fucking arsehole.” Rob knows this. Two lines sum up Rob: “She’s right, of course. Perhaps, that’s why the 2020 Hulu series remake casts Zoë Kravitz as Rob.

Its portrayal of masculinity and gender is troubling. Despite Hornby’s sharp writing, the unlikeability of Rob is so obstructive that any redeeming quality the novel has doesn’t matter.

In this top-five list, Rob outlines his most memorable break-ups, making a pointed effort to let his latest ex-girlfriend Laura know she didn’t make the cut. It begins with what Rob and his employees/sort-of friends Barry and Dick love: a top-five list. High Fidelity, Hornby’s first novel, follows the mediocre life of record shop owner Rob Fleming in North London as he grapples with rejection in his love life. High Fidelity tries to say something profound about a man who self-sabotages and blames women for the fallout. Rob’s selfish behavior places him high on a list of fiction’s most insufferable characters. The best part of Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel High Fidelity is the end - when the whiny narrator and protagonist Rob Fleming finally shuts up.

1995 nick hornby novel