![]() ![]() Are all relationships, all rejections, merely repetitions of earlier ones? He goes right back to his first heartbreak, right back to Alison Ashworth no less, with whom at 13 he had a relationship that 'lasted six hours (the two hour gap between school and Nationwide)'. ![]() And when this does not hit the spot, he takes to reordering his relationships with women, as if this kind of obsessive categorising is the only way of accessing his emotions. So Rob does what a man's gotta do and rearranges his record collection. Fictionally, at least, entry into the adult world is being postponed from adolescence until middle age. In many ways, this is a coming-of-age novel for those who have spent their entire lives avoiding the issue for fear of coming too soon. Applied to men, 'mid-life crisis' does not describe a passing phase, but the state of mind of any male over 30. His girlfriend, Laura, has left him, prompting some sort of mid-life crisis, though I hesitate to use such an unspecific term. In High Fidelity, Rob and his mates are experts at Fantasy Compilation Albums, Fantasy Soundtracks for Fantasy Lives. In Fever Pitch (1992), Hornby brilliantly charted the intimate dynamics of fandom long before the vogue for Fantasy Football. ![]() They make endless lists of records, films, episodes of Cheers, in order to prove themselves to each other. You see, Rob and his friends, Barry and Dick, who work in Rob's second-hand record shop, know that what really matters is what you like, 'not what you are like'. ![]()
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