I just finished Love Monkey. And I'm thinking about Hugh Grant in About a Boy.

I have been taught that comparison, in the literary analysis sense of the word, is when a writer discusses what two seemingly different works have in common. Contrasting works, therefore, involves works that seem relatively similar. In other words, "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail" should be contrasted while The scarlet Letter and Bridget Jones's Diary should be compared.

So, it depends on whether or not a person liked Love Monkey as to whether they would want it to be compared or contrasted from Nick Hornby's books. I would choose to compare them, since they are so different I would take it as a challenge.

Case in point:

"She really is a tasty package. She's got hair like summer and a voice like three A.M." (LM, 176)

What does that even mean?! Is her hair in a ponytail? Does she sound like he called and woke her up in the middle of the night? And how exactly would those qualities make her "tasty"?

I would be completely willing (okay, not completely, but far more likely) to forgive this line if not for the critique of Train's "Drops of Jupiter":

"'There's nothing to it,' I say, 'It's a string of nonsense--"since the return of her stay on the moon, she listens like spring and she talks like June"?--what's that? It's just killing time till you get to the chorus.'"(196)

It's practically his own line! Did he think we wouldn't remember a clunker like that?

On a side note, when did titles start ending with a colon and the phrase "A Novel"? Such as, Love Monkey: A Novel. Do publishing companies think we can't figure out what type of book we're buying? Or do they simply feel the need to specify? Yes indeedy, this drivel is a novel, not kindling. Even though it'd burn up real nice, please do not use it to start a fire. It's not like we're ever going to see Oedipus: We Hear It's A Play or "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Collosal Waste of Time, Money, and the Beautiful Resources of New Zealand", which might actually be of some help.

Anyway, like I said, I'm thinking about Hugh Grant. I think he might be my new favorite actor. I love the way he says Jon Bon Jovi. Like he's talking in the middle of a fox hunt. Of course, I do love the British. And I'm thinking about how much I don't want LM to be made into a movie. And I especially don't want Hugh Grant to star in it if it becomes one.

Labels: books.

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