High fidelity book

Geralda Gjergjaj

Composition#4, Draft#3

Oct 22, 2009

Rob

Nick Hornby is the author of High fidelity book that is based on Rob’s life. This book is based on Rob’s (the protagonist) life. This book is 323 pages and only adults can read it because the context of the book has some bad words. I believe that Rob is decent guy, but he doesn’t know what he wants from his life. In High Fidelity we can read about a guy named Rob telling us about his ex-girlfriends, his personality, and that he’s insecurity. Also in the book the reader can see Rob’s hobby which is of course music and his way to explain everything with a song.

In the book Rob talks about his ex-girlfriends and he tried to explain to the reader how his relationships unfolded. Alison Ashworth was Rob’s first girlfriend when they both were 13 years old. They were together for four days, but they broke up because Alison cheated on him by kissing another guy in front on his eyes. Rob felt heartbroken because Alison was his first girlfriend, and it was weird when he saw her with another guy but he didn’t try to stop them. He only stood like stone and looks at them. Probably he wasn’t in love with her or he didn’t know how to act. Penny Hardwick was his girlfriend for three months. Rob describes Penny as a “nice” girl. In the book Rob told the reader that Penny had a “nice” mother, a “nice” sister, a “nice” house. By the word “nice” he tries to tell us that she wasn’t so important, but she was just “nice”. Rob was with Penny for three months, and he was trying to make love with her, but Penny wasn’t ready yet. One day Rob told her that their relationship didn’t have a point and that it never goes anywhere. Rob and Penny broke up and after a week Rob learned that Penny slept with a guy that she had only known one week. Just like with Alison, in this situation, Rob didn’t do anything again. Of course he felt disappointed, but he didn’t try to win her back. Laura was Rob’s longest relationship. She was the girl who moved in to his house and they lived together. Rob met Laura when he was D.J in a club. Laura was a lawyer, but when she met Rob she didn’t have much money. After a couple months she started earning a significant amount of money. Rob and Laura broke up after a few years (three or four). In the begin of the book the reader can see that Rob claims that he doesn’t care about Laura, and that Laura is not on his Top-Five ex-girlfriend list. But in the middle of the book the reader can clearly understand that Rob really did care about Laura and he wanted her back. He doesn’t know why he wants her back but he is trying to be in the relationship with her again. I believe that Rob wants Laura back because she left him, and after a few days Rob learned that Laura was with a guy named Ian. Ian lived in the same apartment with Rob, so I think Rob is jealous and that’s why he wants her back. As we saw in page 162 when Liz (Laura’s friend) asked him why he is still calling Laura all the time he answer I don’t know. Rob is not sure why he is doing this. In fact Rob remains indecisive throughout all of his relationships.

Rob has a really inconsistent personality. You can’t understand if he is a decent guy or if he is a selfish guy. At times Rob acts like an honest person. The reader can see that on page 77, when one lady tried to sell him some records at a very low price. These records belonged to her husband, but he had left her for a young girl and moved to Spain. The man’s wife wanted to take revenge by selling all his records at a cheap price. Rob didn’t accept the price because he believed it wasn’t right to buy them so cheap. The reader can see that Rob really wanted the records, but he thought it wasn’t fair to buy them. On the other hand, Rob is an unfaithful man because he treats Laura badly in three ways. As we saw in page 92 Rob slept with another woman, he borrowed five thousands from Laura after her abortion and after their breakup Rob told Laura that he was looking for someone else. The reader can see that Rob treat her un fairly and Laura didn’t deserve it. Marie De La Salle is the one who Rob didn’t know what to do. Rob liked her but Marie wasn’t his type. Marie was a singer and a powerful woman. Rob and Marie slept together but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be in a relationship with her. He had a good night with her but after they slept together Rob didn’t want to sleep again with her. We can see that he is not sure about his decisions. Rob is honest and unfaithful at the same time. On one hand he didn’t accept the once-in-a-life-time price for the records, but on the other hand he cheated on Laura and he wanted her back, but still slept with Marie without having feelings for her.

Rob was always insecure about himself. We saw that on page 167 when one costumer came to Rob’s record store and Rob felt weird because the costumer was nice looking. He was wearing his suit, he was well spoken, and he had his car keys in his hand. Rob started worrying about himself because the costumer was almost at the same age as Rob, and he had nice clothes, a nice attitude, was married, and worked in a respectable profession. Rob doesn’t have anything like this. He have his record store bad he don’t have serious clothes, no car and he is not married he don’t even have a girlfriend. He wants to change and to be like him but he doesn’t try to make a plan for his life. In page 141 of our book we saw that rob went to the movies with his parents. That day he saw a guy that he referred to as “THE MOST PATHETIC MAN IN THE WORLD.” The most pathetic man in the world was so ugly, and he saw Rob and he gave him a smile which meant, they were the same, in the same situation. Rob was with his parents, and the most pathetic man in the world was with his parents too. This disturbed Rob so much that he couldn’t focus on the movie. Rob felt so angry because he didn’t like the event that happened. He said that they are not the same at all they are totally different. Rob is old enough and he must start thinking about his life seriously. He has to change some think in his personality. He has to start growing up.

Rob’s life is kind of a strange because he is not really sure what he wants to do with his life. In this book he told us that he wants to change, but he isn’t sure in which way. He told us about his ex-girlfriends and about his personality. In High Fidelity book we learned about how Rob is in his life, his way of thinking and his way of explaining things with a list five songs. Rob knows everything about music and song, but he doesn’t know anything about women. Every situation reminds him a song. I believe that Nick Hornby tried to give us a way to understand how men think with the example of Rob. How he feel, he act, his thoughts and his beliefs.