LVIII: High Fidelity

I am currently reading High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, the author behind one of my favourite movies ever, About a Boy. I saw the movie version starring John Cusack a couple of years ago on TV and remember liking it, but barely remember the details other than Jack Black was in it and that John Cusack stood in the rain a lot. [This is how my memory now is, by the way. I remember who stars in things and random moments but not the important stuff.]

Anyway, I like how the book is giving me insight on the male psyche. This is totally uncharted territory for me as there are only two men whom I am and have ever been close to, one of which is my father and the other one is like a brother to me and lives in Hong Kong. Thus I really only have one male figure who is close to me in both the emotional and geographical sense. My very insightful family friend recently told me that this probably best explains my androphobia (N.B. I by no means actually have a full-fledged psychological condition, it's just the easiest way to refer to it. And an exaggeration.) -- the fact that the only man in my life is my significantly older father and that I have not had a sufficient amount of interaction with young men to be able to know how to act around them. Kind of like how I wouldn't know how to act around hippopotami. Or bears.

Then I started thinking about the title of the book. I'm only halfway through but I already appreciate the pun, even if the author may not have meant it to be there...

High fidelity:

• High fidelity or hi-fi is most commonly a term for the high-quality reproduction of sound or images.
• fidelity |fəˈdelətē| noun - faithfulness to a person, cause, or belief, demonstrated by continuing loyalty and support

The novel revolves around Robert, an owner of an unsuccessful record store whose work and life revolve around music. It explores his reaction to a sudden breakup in which his longterm girlfriend leaves and moves in with a new guy. He talks about his relational past: how he has been cheated on before and how he has done the cheating as well. And he's trying to pull himself back together.

You'd think I would have learned more about guys by reading About a Boy, wouldn't you? I like to spice things up like that.