A guy/man/boy who interned at the White House with me raved about how Nick Hornby perfectly captured men's feelings on commitment and long-term relationships in High Fidelity. (This said guy/man/boy had a journalism degree from Northwestern University, no paying job after unsuccessfully trying to start some Internet business with his friends and leopard-print sheets on his futon. I'll let you decide what category fits him.)

Partially because I really have no clue about men's/boy's/guy's feelings on commitment, I went looking for the book at the library a few weeks ago. I didn't find it, but I did find About A Boy. And I did enjoy Hornby's male perspective - a male character bluntly told a single mother that her son told her he needed a father figure not because he actually needed a father figure but because he wanted to 'win' an argument.

The same male character was wholeheartedly committed to doing nothing and having as few emotional tangles as possible while living off the royalties from the Christmas song his father wrote. In the end, he cracked and fell in love and enveloped all the messy commitments THAT entails. For me, the ending was sweet and funny and one big HA to all the men out there who think family is more trouble than it's worth.

So, in conclusion (as Crystal would say) when High Fidelity makes its way back to the Woodstock Public Library shelves, I will be checking that one out, too.