Monday, November 27, 2006 Rearview: "How To Be Good" By Tisha Mae I. Sanchez
FROM the title, I expected this book to give me answers. Substantial answers. Answers that will help me live my life as a “good” person. Of course, it was dim-witted of me to expect a life instruction manual of sorts. While it does not provide a step-by-step guide to Doing Good, this very funny book entertains, explores conventional standards and, most importantly for me, makes one think.
Hornby prompts us to ask the big questions: “What is good?" "What is bad?" And how can we “be good?"
It starts with Kate Carr telling her cantankerous husband, David, that she wants a divorce. Kate is a doctor (which, in most people’s books, would mean that she is indeed good) while David writes an angry column for the local newspaper. Dissatisfied with her lackluster career, marriage and family life, she sleeps with another man and wishes things were different.
For starters, she wishes David would stop being so bitter and angry all the time. She gets exactly that when David undergoes a complete character transformation after meeting a spiritual leader, Goodnews. Suddenly, David loses the sarcasm and becomes honest, attentive, even loving.
With Goodnews as his partner, David becomes the quintessential do-gooder and tries to lead the Goodness crusade, at least within his neighborhood. He urges his neighbors to add a homeless child to their household. He tells his children to give up their toys for the poor and encourages them to befriend the unpopular kids. For Kate, that’s Doing Good gone too far! Face to face with this new reality, Kate finds her values being challenged and questions exactly what it is to be good.
The premise of the book is absolutely hilarious and it’s wonderfully written: it’s witty yet compassionate, viciously honest yet hopeful, funny yet poignant. It displays Hornby’s storytelling talent. There is no definite ending and it mirrors real life that way. Even if we miss the whole point of the book, it’s a fun, engaging read. I didn’t get my life manual but I stil came away with many valuable lessons.
