Next time I pass a panhandler or step around a mound of dirty blanket on the sidewalk I'll think of this book and be glad I'm not one of the characters- becuase I'd have to do something.In "How To Be Good" we have a luke-warm marriage forming a thin layer of ice when the wife finds a partener to have sex with. As she deals with the gulit and sundry other emotions her husbands morphs into Mr. Roger's, befriends Mr. GoodNews (who cures ills with magic hands), hands money to street-people and starts the neighborhood bringing homeless people home.What are the motivations to be "good". Told through the eyes of the unfaithful wife (and a Dr. to boot) Hornby explores this part of our phsyche somethimes with a scalpel and others with a chainsaw.If you want "High Fidelity" again re-read it and don't compain because Hornby didn't re-write it. If you want to be challenged in an entertaining way by a good and clever writer read this one.