High Fidelity and Its Excellent Storytelling

        It is rather uncommon that a book on a school summer- reading list has a review from The New Yorker on the front cover that says,"'[i]t is rare that a book so hilarious is also so sharp about sex and manliness, memory and music.'" How can a book that deals with such promiscuous topics make its way onto my A.P. English list? There must be some level of sophistication, I thought. But how can an author construct a serious novel with such   licentious fundamentals? And so, my curiosity got the best of me, and I found myself making my way to the register with this anomalous book in hand.   
        Notwithstanding my being on the idyllic beaches of Spain with countless opportunities and my new-found foreign friends, I was irrationally engaged in completing Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. The novel delves into the plethora of romantic situations, heartbreaks and disappointments, and other important facets of our daily lives that are so intoxicating as to transport me from Cádiz, Spain to the streets of London, the setting of the novel. Hornby, with his stylistic nuances, successfully employs the literary mechanisms that are essential to great storytelling. Rob, the novel's narrator, uses impeccable word choice with his informal witticisms and satirical remarks, constructs a captivating and complex plot with appropriate character development, and investigates the intricacies of human nature that are stimulating and intriguing. The confluence of these literary devices ultimately constitutes a modern literary masterpiece that embodies the essence of excellent storytelling. 

         Throughout the novel, Rob does not season his story with intricate sentences and words, but his language is consistently informal and clear. He cleverly weaves f-bombs and wisecracks into the fabric of his story. This contemporary flair adds to the novel by creating an element of stream of consciousness; rather than meticulously fabricating a sentence based on the perfect word choice and remaining politically correct, Rob focuses more on what he has to say, rather than how he says it. His lack of care in word selection is not a sign of a dilettante storyteller, but it is inherently valuable because his informal approach adds a layer of authenticity. His word choice allows the audience to feel as though there is no facade they need to break down, but rather his words and story are directly representative of his thoughts. This connection between the teller and the audience is fundamentally imperative in the development of a story because it creates a sense of unity between the two. As an example of his word choice, Rob recounts the following on his lonely birthday that is spent watching movies and eating kettle chips: "Sounds like the sort of birthday a brand-new thirty-six-year-old should have. (Actually, it is the only sort of birthday a brand-new thirty-six-year old could have--the sort of thirty-six year-old-with no wife, family, girlfriend, or money, anyway. Kettle Chips! F-off!" Further, on a more basic level, his informal language and perpetual swearing heightens the humor in the story, once again enhancing Rob's storytelling.  

            Additionally, the structure and development of the plot unveil Rob's expertise as a narrator. Rob's story has taken a banal topic such as romance and has added an original and spunky twist. One of the key subtleties between High Fidelity and other stories regarding romance is that Rob's plot fully encompasses the whole picture, both the good and the ugly. The mere fact that he expertly includes the inexplicable nuances in emotions and actions that the characters feel and commit clearly exposes Rob's mastery of the art of storytelling. For example,  NOT FINISHED WITH THIS PARAGRAPH. Further, because the audience gets a holistic history of Rob and his previous, fruitless relationships and is the listeners to his self-deprecating remarks, the audience automatically sympathizes for Rob and roots for him from the beginning. This investment from the audience is a sign of great storytelling.

           Although it is easy to discredit the story as a serious literary work due to its casual language, the underlying ideas and plot are thought-provoking and serious; this novel ultimately becomes more dynamic and impressive with the amalgam of casual prose and thoughtful meanings. Rob often intertwines passages that say a lot about humanity as a whole with his playful jargon. For example, Rob explores the relationship between the two men who work for him, Barry and Dick, after Dick finally has a date. Rob thinks, "and why does it bother Barry so much that Dick is seeing someone? Because he doesn't want a smile from a man with buckteeth and an anorak in the cinema queue, that's why; he's worried about how his life is turning out, and he's lonely, and lonely people are the bitterest of them all." This passage evokes emotion among the audience as Rob is actually honing in on key topics about society: insecurity and loneliness. However, Rob's themes are not necessarily explicitly expounded in passages such as the previous one, but are often products of his actions. For example, Rob often draws upon his previous relationships and his past-life and connects them to his current life. He often prescribes his current behaviors as the consequences of the previous events in his life. Rob is directly demonstrating that the essence of who humans are is simply the gathering of past experiences. Scenarios such as this one clearly leaves the audience thinking deeper about humanity, a sign that this book does, in fact, have depth and is thought-provoking. 
     And so, after reading this novel, I realized exactly why it was on my AP reading list. That New Yorker review on the front cover was right; the book masters the impossible as it effortlessly combines humorous and intellectual elements into the enticing plot. 


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