Keeping it positive

Housekeeping vs. the Dirt, published in 2006, is another in a series of collections of Nick Hornby's delightful columns printed monthly, or almost monthly, in Believer. That his column does not appear every month is something of a running joke in these columns, which ran from February 2005 to June/July 2006. From time to time Hornby comments about being suspended by the magazine's editors for making negative comments about the books he reviews. They supposedly tolerate only positive reviews. Yet Hornby's comments about the magazine, his editors and himself are often so fanciful that one doesn't  always know what should be believed. Only when writing about books and literature in general does his commentary seem sincere and trustworthy.

At the top of each column Hornby lists both the books bought that month (although he also includes books given to him) and the books read that month. Then he writes about the books he read in a stew of an essay that mixes in other commentary, as well.

He reads quite a variety of books, mostly in the middle range between the high-brow and low-brow extremes and mostly contemporary books. Yet he does comment on Voltaire's Candide, G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday and Robert Warren's All the King's Men, each a classic from years gone by. Naturally the commentary that most interests me is that about books I've read and appreciated, such as Jess Walter's Citizen Vince, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, Michael Frayn's Spies and The Trick of It and Tom Perrotta's Little Children. He likes them, too, and one believes that his positive reviews are not just the result of some edict from Believer editors.

Hornby's book also includes a few brief excerpts from books he reviews that may entice readers to try them even if his reviews do not.

Hornby is himself a novelist, the author of such books as About a Boy and A Long Way Down.

If you think books reviews have to be stuffy, read Hornby's columns and think again.