High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
"High Fidelity" by Nick Hornby is a novel that centers around Rob Fleming, a record store owner in England, who grapples with his recent breakup from his girlfriend, Laura. The story is narrated through Rob's unique perspective, marked by his obsession with compiling lists, particularly of his top five most memorable breakups, which he uses to reflect on his relationships. As Rob navigates the emotional aftermath of his split, he learns valuable lessons about love, communication, and the complexities of male-female dynamics. The narrative is woven with his interactions with friends and employees at his store, highlighting his struggles with introspection and vulnerability.
Throughout the novel, music plays a significant role, serving as both a backdrop to Rob's experiences and a means of emotional expression. As he confronts his past relationships, Rob reconnects with various women from his life, seeking closure and understanding about the reasons behind their breakups. This journey leads him to unexpected revelations about himself and ultimately about his relationship with Laura, particularly as they navigate their feelings during a tumultuous time. "High Fidelity" explores themes of love, regret, and the struggle for personal growth, all set against a rich tapestry of music culture. The combination of humor, nostalgia, and poignant moments captures the essence of modern romantic challenges.
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High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
First published: 1995
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of plot: Late twentieth century
Locale: London
Principal characters
Rob Fleming , record store owner and narratorLaura Lydon , Rob’s on-and-off girlfriendDick , Rob’s employee and friendBarry , Rob’s employee and friendMarie LaSalle , a musicianLiz , Rob and Laura’s mutual friendIan “Ray” Raymond , Laura’s new love interestAlison , ,Penny , ,Jackie , ,Charlie , andSarah , Rob’s former girlfriends
The Story:
Rob Fleming enjoys compiling lists of his top five choices in various categories, and he begins narrating his story by listing his top five most memorable breakups. Rob describes each of these failed relationships, from first meeting a woman to dating her to the inevitable rejection. His purpose in detailing these painful experiences for his readers is to explain to them why his most recent breakup, with his girlfriend Laura, does not qualify for the list. Rob expounds on several lessons learned, such as the fact that teenage boys and girls have vastly different opinions about sex. Each analysis includes a rebuke to Laura and her apparently inconsequential rejection of Rob.
At the climax of that rejection, Laura has packed her bags and is leaving the apartment she shares with Rob. The parting is uncomfortable and awkward, yet Rob feels relief when she finally leaves. He is already contemplating his new life and planning to redecorate his apartment.
Feeling good, Rob heads to Championship Vinyl, the record store he owns. He converses with his employee Dick about a new mix tape he made, but the subject of Laura does not come up. Rob’s other employee, Barry, arrives later in the day, and the three men argue about the store’s current music selection. Rob often employs various means of dealing with emotional stress in isolation, including listening to Beatles albums and reorganizing his record collection in the order that he bought the albums.
Rob finally tells his friends about Laura, but only after he has a fight with Barry that culminates in an angry outburst. Once things calm down, Rob’s friends take him to a show at a pub to cheer him up. Rob immediately falls for the musician, Marie LaSalle, and begins crying when she sings a stirring rendition of a Peter Frampton song. She strikes up a conversation with the men, and they encourage her to stop by Championship Vinyl.
Laura contacts Rob, saying she wants to come by and pick up a few things from the apartment. Rob also talks to their mutual friend Liz, who calls to offer her support. During the conversation, Liz mentions that Laura is seeing someone named Ian. Rob has no idea who this could be, until he remembers a former neighbor named I. Raymond, known as Ray. Rob analyzes every moment Laura spent with Ray during the time he lived above them, attempting to look for clues that prove Laura was unfaithful. Soon after, Rob meets Liz for a drink, and he learns Liz has suddenly decided to side with Laura on the breakup.
Rob reminisces about the time he first met Laura, when he was a deejay in a club. They were both young and idealistic, and one of the first things he gave her was a well thought out mix tape. Rob also ruminates on what Laura could have told Liz about him that would cause her to take sides. He decides that there are many possibilities, including the facts that he had an affair when Laura was pregnant and that he borrowed money from Laura after her abortion and never repaid it.
Soon after his meeting with Liz, Rob finds Laura waiting for him after work. At his apartment, they awkwardly discuss Laura’s relationship and cohabitation with Ray. Rob pushes her into admitting that they have a 9 percent chance of getting back together. She also reveals that she has not slept with Ray, a fact that makes Rob ecstatic. Immediately after this conversation, Rob goes to another of Marie’s shows and goes home with her afterward. They sleep together and discuss their recently failed relationships. Rob leaves her apartment feeling conflicted.
Rob spends time trying to figure out whether Laura is planning to sleep with Ray; he calls her and asks her to meet him. When they meet for a drink, she admits that she has finally slept with Ray. Rob gets upset and makes prank calls to Ray from a pay phone outside his apartment.
Rob begins contacting the women who made his list of top five worst breakups to ascertain why they rejected him. He learns that Alison married the boy for whom she broke up with Rob and is now living in Australia. Penny reveals that she hated him for breaking up with her and consequently hates sex. Jackie is happily married to Rob’s adolescent best friend, with whom she has had children. Sarah regrets leaving Rob for another man. Charlie invites him to dinner, where he conflicts with her sophisticated friends.
During this journey into the past, Rob gets a call from Ray, who wants to resolve their issues. Rob mumbles that he does not know how that could work and hangs up quickly. He then obsessively rewrites the conversation, imagining a more heated outcome. Rob has another date with Marie, and they decide to remain friends.
Laura’s father dies, and her mother invites Rob to the funeral. Laura is grateful for Rob’s presence, and they end up in her car after leaving the reception early. They go to a pub, where Laura admits she is too tired not to resume their relationship. Once home, they discuss music tastes, careers, and their future together, with Rob more or less proposing marriage.
Soon after, Laura asks Rob about his top five jobs, surprising him with the chance to live out an old dream: being a deejay in a club again. Dick and Barry help her set up the event. Rob compares the evening to the end of a film, with everyone dancing and getting along. The scene is reminiscent of the night Rob and Laura met, and he begins to plan yet another elaborate compilation tape for her.
Bibliography
Faulk, Barry. “Love, Lists, and Class in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity.” Cultural Critique 66 (Spring, 2007): 153-176. In this well-rounded critique, Faulk looks at the relationship between rock and class. He analyzes the act of list-making in High Fidelity while expounding on similarities between Rob and Hornby.
Ferrebe, Alice. Masculinity in Male-Authored Fiction, 1950-2000: Keeping It Up. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Includes a discussion on High Fidelity’s place in the literature of the “New Lad” and the gender issues involved in Rob’s mode of address.
Keskinen, Mikko. “Single, Long-Playing, and Compilation: The Formats of Audio and Amorousness in Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity.” Critique 47, no. 1 (Fall, 2005): 3-21. Looks at how different formats of audio technology relate to love and relationships in the novel. The analysis includes many illustrative examples from the text.
Knowles, Joanne. Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity”: A Reader’s Guide. New York: Continuum, 2002. An authoritative guide to the novel; includes an analysis of the major themes as well as a short biography of the author, and examines the place of the novel in society.
Laing, Dave. “31 Songs and Nick Hornby’s Pop Ideology.” Popular Music 24, no. 2 (2005): 269-271. Examines the parallels between Hornby, who critiques music in his book of essays 31 Songs (2002), and Rob in High Fidelity.
Lea, Daniel. “Urban Thrall: Renegotiating the Suburban Self in Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch and High Fidelity.” In Expanding Suburbia: Reviewing Suburban Narratives, edited by Roger Webster. New York: Berghahn Books, 2000. The chapter on Hornby’s works looks at the place of suburbia in the lives of Rob and Hornby. Emphasizes the effect of a middle-class upbringing on the books’ protagonists.