Have You Read/Seen?: High Fidelity

This Saturday is the annual Record Store Day, and what better way to honour this than by appreciating High Fidelity, Nick Hornby’s tale of a miserable record store owner in the ‘90s. Both the book and film adaptation excellently portray the attitude of pop music of the time - the alternative, indie pop music of then, not the chart stuff of now. The ultimate quotation that pretty much sums up it up is “Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”

Protagonist Rob Fleming owns a record store in a quiet area of Holloway in London-Chicago in the film, though geography is hardly important. He and his two employees, Barry and Dick, perfectly epitomise the typical hardcore record collector, with their constant top five lists and snobbery over the inferior musical knowledge of many of their customers and acquaintances. There are many moral dilemmas that can appear in this sort of set up, including when Rob is offered a huge record collection with many rare finds for very little money, but turns it down so as to not get involved in a marital fight and help the wife destroy her husband.

However, though the record store scenario is described as a depressing, dead end job for the majority of the book, Rob finds greater ideas and plans for happiness by the end in the form of having acoustic gigs in the shop as well as returning to his DJing from years ago. When he gets back together with Laura, who left at the very beginning of the story, all these things begin to come together and he finds that happiness - or as close to it as he can get - is actually possible, albeit with a bit of an attitude adjustment.

In the film adaptation, John Cusack perfectly portrays this bitter character who is going through a journey of self-discovery, though it must be said that his constant miserly narrative can wear you down - in the book, you don’t have to hear that depressing tone of voice. As far as adaptations go, this film follows the book impressively, and there is also the added bonus of being able to hear the music that is being referenced, thus making it possible to relate to Rob more easily.

Despite Rob’s emphasis on and constant thoughts of music throughout, it is his breakup with Laura and subsequent thoughts of other long lost ex-girlfriends that drive most of the book. However, this is always related to music in some way - whether their top five recording artists, or the song that begun their entire relationship. This is a touching story about how music can be so personally important in so many people’s lives, and Nick Hornby should be applauded for the realism he brings to the tale that so easily absorbs the reader into Rob’s desolate life.

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