How to Be Good

With characteristic off-handed wit, Nick Hornby steps into the muddy shoes of a would-be divorce struggling with her husband’s bitter-turned-sweet outlook on life.  Katie Carr, in defense of her goodness, finds herself dropped onto the sarcastic and sour team her husband’s relocation has left vacant.  Two visits to the hothanded miracle man, GoodNews, and David Grant is inviting homeless kids into the house instead of raving about them as the Angriest Man in Halloway.  As a doctor in an NHS surgery, Katie is accustomed to being the recipient of positive assumptions about her character, she’s a doctor for goodness sake.  But goodness has never been as simple as she believed.  Despite projections about the fabulous life of a divorcee, Katie finds herself unable to commit to the decision to leave or stay until she withholds medical aide in exchange for advice from the priest who has appeared in her office.  Under duress, the priest tells Katie to stay; though Katie may not have chosen the path of her own accord, she resigns herself to giving up the idea of divorce and begins to reconcile with the reality of her family.  While David will never be exactly who she wants him to be, they decide together that no News is better than GoodNews and they settle in to struggle up out of the muck they have made through mutual neglect of each other.