8th
Read: Juliet, Naked, Nick Hornby
I love Nick Hornby. Unabashedly and unreservedly. Last year’s Slam was one of my favorite books: a frank look at teenage pregnancy from the perspective of a clueless adolescent male (and all the redundancies that implies). This year, Hornby switches gears entirely, with the story of reclusive musician Tucker Crowe. Crowe, a 1980s era singer/songwriter, disappeared into obscurity in the middle of that decade, leaving behind one album widely regarded as spectacular (Juliet) and a cult of mystery and Internet-fueled speculation around him, a chief contributor of which is one of the book’s main characters, Duncan. Duncan’s long-suffering partner, Annie, has had just about enough of his obsession, and when an acoustic demo version of Crowe’s famous album (the eponymous Juliet, Naked) appears, tensions start to rise. It’s a funny, sweet meditation on talent, middle-age, parenthood, and what we leave behind.
