Review of Juliet, Naked (2018) by Mauro_Lanari — 26 Nov 2019

(Mauro Lanari).

"About a Boy" (novel: 1998, film: 2002) was more a reference to 36-year-old Will Freeman/Hugh Grant than to 12-year-old Marcus Brewer/Nicholas Hoult: Hornby's poetry runs out in the eternal adolescence of adults unable to assume responsibilities in line with their anagraphic age, seasoned with British humor and rock music. It's not such a deep concept as to legitimize a literary career, and the flop of "A Long Way Down" is there to prove it. Even worse if the solution to the mid-age crisis of Generation X coincides with the embourgeoisement (getting married, building a family, having children in the slavish respect for traditional values and roles) and if in the soundtrack the most famous song of the Pretenders stands out clumsily ("Brass in Pocket"). Apatow will have his faults, but already the English author follows an involution of his own.