Dawn Marie Fichera's review: Nick Hornby's Juliet, Naked (Riverhead:416 pages), is a story of failed relationships, lives un-lived, and the realization that every day has been a painfully passive existence. Told from the perspective of three self-pitying characters who are stuck in the doldrums of every day life, who opt to examine their lives far too late, their narratives become depressing and empty and leaving the reader feeling more depressed than reading Shindler's List. There is no redemption for any of them.

Leading off this sad lot is Duncan, the self-proclaimed 'Crowologist', and quintessential rabid fan, who runs a Website dedicated to the reclusive musician, Tucker Crowe. Duncan is completely unable to have a healthy relationship with anyone real as evidenced by his inability to commit to his live-in partner, Annie, with whom he has been in a virtually sexless, loveless relationship for fifteen years. He has spent the better part of fifteen years stalking Crowe's life, jet setting from the pathetic little English seaside town of Gooleness, where he and Annie live, in the hopes of discovering some clue as to why Crowe left the music world so abruptly. Along their travels around the States, which includes a trip out to Minneapolis to see a toilet, Duncan infuses a preponderance of meaning into the most banal artifacts Crowe is associated with and places where Crowe has been.

Duncan's obsession with Crowe leads him to view life through Crowe-colored glasses and he is paralyzed as a functioning human being, incapable of contributing anything worthwhile to society.

Annie, the second lead character, is a forty-ish woman who has spent her youth on Duncan, and laments the loss of life and experience the relationship has dealt. She is in a dead-end job as a sea museum fund raiser, with no hopes of going anywhere and succumbs to her lot in life without so much as a fight or ounce of resistance. Even her attempt at self-enlightenment is half-hearted, as she seeks out an impotent therapist with whom to share her deepest feelings. Disillusioned about what will bring her fulfillment and happiness, she obsesses about having a child in order to avoid nostalgia, and fill the void growing within her.

Annie is an emotionally stunted character, pulling desperately on the strings of empathy and failing miserably. At best, the reader is left feeling apathetic toward her.

Tucker Crowe, the third piece to the tryst, and the thread that links Annie and Duncan together, is a washed-up musician in his fifties who opted to check out of the real world twenty years before. He uses his fame garnered from his mysterious and abrupt departure from the music scene as an excuse to live a life of a recluse, subsisting and living on the handouts from his ex-wives, lovers, and girlfriends. As far as I can tell, this about echoes the modus operandi of every unmotivated musician in the world.

How the three get mixed up into a botched lovers triangle is owed to a CD that arrives in the mail addressed to Duncan. Duncan's impotency as a human being stretches so far that he doesn't open his own mail. Annie opens the CD to discover Juliet, Naked, a collection of solo acoustic demos of the beloved album, Juliet, which has served as the glue to Duncan and Annie's relationship. In a rarified moment of strength, she listens to the album before Duncan, hoping to elicit some reaction from him. Duncan responds with as much emotion as one who just found out his girlfriend cheated on him with his best friend. Over the course of a few hours, and a few drinks later, all is forgiven and the pseudo-intellectualizing of the album begins.

Annie, in a last-ditch attempt to gain some semblance of self-identity, uncharacteristically writes a review of the album that contradicts the zealous review Duncan has posted on his site. Once Annie's review is posted, Tucker Crowe reaches out to her via email, effectively breaking his twenty-year silence with the public. From that moment on, the reader is treated to a depressive ride through the failures and lackluster lives of these three characters and their emotional baggage.

With expectations running high from the author who gave us High Fidelity, Juliet, Naked, falls short of the finish line. Juliet, Naked, the fictional CD in the book with all its glaringly rough acoustic solo demos, can be used as a metaphor itself for Hornby's attempt with this book. It is a collection of drab and dreary personal narratives from characters that pale in comparison to his previous efforts. Perhaps that was the goal all along?

Anthony Kuzminski's review: Nick Hornby, best known as the author of Fever Pitch, High Fidelity and About A Boy, is at his finest when he writes about what he knows. Being a musical fanatic, the very fabric of his fandom finds a way into almost all of his novels (especially on High Fidelity), but his latest, Juliet, Naked is all about music�and how we view our lives through it. This 400-page book is full of rich prose, twisting analogies and enough reminders of my own obsessions to scare me. The book's central characters are Annie and Duncan and Tucker Crowe. Duncan is a middle-aged man obsessed with the ever elusive Tucker Crowe, a rock star who disappeared more than twenty years earlier after releasing his masterpiece break-up album, Juliet. Duncan and Annie has been a couple for as far back as anyone can remember and on a holiday in America, they visit a series of landmarks (if you can call them that) that is relevant to Tucker Crowe's career. From abandoned recording studios, to ex-girlfriends houses to a toilet in a Minneapolis club where he rumor has it that had a revelation and from that day on never gave another interview or wrote another song. It doesn't take long to immediately know that Hornby's characters are vivacious with brewing emotions ready to spill over at any moment. As the words jump off the pages, the emotions wrap themselves around you forcing you not to just turn page after page but to question your own life as well.

I sadly (and amusingly) can relate to Duncan at times. While part of his behavior scares me, I can understand where he is coming from. As one becomes invested in an artist and their music, they often can go off the deep end, questioning, pondering and dissecting minutiae details few care about, but die-hard and educated fans believe that these little secrets hold the keys to said artists genius. The issue with Duncan is that he's more passionate about Tucker Crowe than he is about his own life or his long standing girlfriend Annie. Annie is the crux of the story as she proves to be the character the reader wraps themselves around and roots for. She's been with Duncan for fifteen years and while on their Tucker Crowe trip of America, she begins to realize that what he wants isn't necessarily what she wants. Back in England, circumstances converge, which force Annie to branch out and flex her own confidence. Upon their arrival back in England, a CD appears at their house, Juliet, Naked; the raw demos of the Juliet album. Duncan revels in their raw beauty while Annie questions how anyone could love anything that's fragmentary and not as refined as the actual album. Duncan writes a review, lives off the feedback and believes it's Crowe's masterpiece. Annie writes a contrary review, posts it to the net and finds an email response from the ever mysterious Tucker Crowe who thanks her for her review. This is all I am going to share as you can guess how these three people's lives come together.

The book could be titled The Things We Think But Do Not Say. Duncan, Annie and the Tucker Crowe all have overwhelming and reflective thoughts about their lives. They carefully plot discussions in their head but when confronted with real life, they often say something that doesn't resemble their real thoughts in any way, shape or form. This is where Hornby's prose bursts to life. We see one scenario that could play out and want to scream when another presents itself. For as truthful and artistic as Tucker Crowe is, he can't find the words for the mess his life has become. Duncan is so blinded by his obsession; he can't make sense of his life. Even when it is rattled to its core, he is more concerned with his own creature comforts in life than other people's feelings. However, he also has utters words which prove to be moments of awakening for the other characters. Annie feels trapped by everything; her job, her relationships, her age and her life. Her questions about life are the ones that stayed with me long after I finished the book. If these three characters weren't enough to make you love the book, then the passages about music will. Hornby writes like an obsessive. Simply having one's albums isn't enough. You must experience the B-sides, bootlegs and rare radio broadcasts that help us understand the music on a more profound and intimate level. While reading about Tucker Crowe, I was listening to new albums by Michael McDermott and Will Hoge, two acts Hornby would love if he ever discovered them. Both acts have intensely personal albums where one senses that they are drawing from real life. That being said, I have no idea if the songs that infuse Hey La Hey or The Wreckage are autobiographical or not. But it hasn't stopped me from wondering. If you're a music junkie, then this book is essential reading and if you're not, it will help you understand what makes a music fan's mind tick.

There is nothing worse than a life full of regret. As one ages, we ponder over our life choices and wonder if we chose the right path or if an alternate one would have been more beneficial. Depending on one's situation, they often view certain tragedies as blessings, yet others may view them as just that, tragedies. Over time, I often bump into old friends and even though I am significantly younger than the characters in Nick Hornby's latest novel, Juliet, Naked, I encounter people who face demons daily. They thought they wanted a certain life at nineteen or twenty and now that they are in their thirties, they express immense regret for past decisions and indecisions. Some of these misgivings come from misguided career choices, a lack of travel, but the overwhelming majority comes from spoiled relationships. Many friends I encounter meet significant others whom they love deep down, but after five, ten or fifteen years with them, they soon look in the mirror and come to the realization that they have wasted away a significant amount of time on someone who is selfish and cares more about security than love. The question arises, how does one snap out of a funk like this and move on with life? These are the questions that the three main characters from Hornby's thought-provoking book tackle. Juliet, Naked is more than mere entertainment, but a wake-up call for many. If we seek great rewards, then we must take great risks and that sometimes means exposing your soul. While we all know life is short and time is ticking, sometimes we need to witness a remarkable concert, see a eye-opening movie, hear a song that wakes you up or read a novel (like Juliet, Naked) that reminds you that life is not something to be taken for granted and that the gifts given to us through art should not be wasted, but deliberated and most importantly, put into action.

Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network and his daily writings can be read at The Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.