HIGH FIDELITY

[Editors' Note: The following is a combined review of ABOUT A BOY and HIGH FIDELITY]--British working-class literature often shocks Americans with its psychological cruelty and vulgarity. In these sly, humorous, and somewhat softened examples, author Hornby gives us sympathetic looks at flawed young heroes fumbling toward manliness. HIGH FIDELITY's narrator/protagonist—a callow young record store owner obsessed with the politics of his disappointing sex life—admits to being "self-centered, blind and stupid." In the other volume, a footloose, unambitious bachelor becomes strangely attracted to a suicidal unwed mother and her odd son, At times, cockney David Cale seems excruciatingly dull and dense; at other times, to have dug deeper into his characters' angst than the author has. He is more confident in ABOUT A BOY, though in both recordings he misses much of the humor. Y.R. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 98]