How does one live a “good” life?

This is the overarching question in Nick Hornby’s most recent novel, aptly titled “How to be Good.”

“How to be Good” is the story of Katie Carr and her family, who live in Holloway, a quarter of London.

Katie is a doctor at a local clinic who recycles, teaches her kids not to be racist and tries to be a loving wife and mother.

Her husband is David, a sarcastic and bitter columnist for the local newspaper. The name of his column is “The Angriest Man in Holloway,” which very much fits his personality – he takes every opportunity available to criticize and make fun of any subject, from film to how old people take so long to get their change out for the bus.

Arguably, David is not a good person. However, things change once he discovers his wife has had an affair.

In the throes of marital warfare, David visits a “spiritual healer” to help with his back pains. This is not something he would normally do, but is an act designed to anger Katie, who disapproves completely of quack doctors.

The spiritual healer, who calls himself D.J. Goodnews, changes David’s life, and the life of the entire Carr family, as he comes to live with the couple and their children when he gets evicted from his house.

David becomes the most sickeningly sweet and altruistic person imaginable – he gives the contents of Katie’s wallet to a homeless kid and donates his son’s computer to a local charity, tries to implement an “adopt-a-bum” program in his neighborhood, and starts to co-author a book with Goodnews about how to live a selfless and righteous life.

David’s sudden change of personality leaves Katie questioning her own conceptions of goodness. The state of their marriage is continually up in the air as they deal with Katie’s affair, David’s personality change and the reactions of the children to both.

I picked up “How to be Good” because I expected the same wit and lively plot inherent in one of Hornby’s other works, “High Fidelity,” to carry over. I wasn’t disappointed.

The novel is rife with witticisms about and insights into the everyday problems people face.

Hornby has a very fresh and unique style that leaves the reader both spellbound and laughing out loud, and the manner in which he constructs dialogue is true to life.

Hornby’s writing is such that the novel could easily be read as a screenplay; the actions of the characters are vivid and his descriptions of the various settings are lucid. Indeed, at times I felt as if I were watching a movie.

I had doubts about Hornby’s ability to maintain the voice of Katie (the narrator) throughout the novel, but he managed to pull it off gracefully and with a high degree of consistency.

Katie has many little “soliloquies” about what to do and how to be good spread sporadically throughout the novel. They were witty and intelligent, never spiraling off into the realm of whininess.

One trouble I had with the work was the subject matter of marriage. I found it hard to relate to the problems Katie and David have with their relationship, as I have never been married.

This may make the book a difficult sale to the college crowd, but the novel is definitely worth reading if one can get past the theme of marriage, as there are many other interesting components of the novel that are brilliant.

The plot of the book moved along swiftly from the first sentence to the last, and I never became bored in the least.

“How to be Good” is salient as a surprising and witty treat that will make the reader ponder what it is to be good, all the while laughing his or her little goody-two-shoes off.