"State of the Union" by Nick Hornby

It was March 30th and I found myself facing the unpleasant fact that it was almost the end of the month -- a month in which I have had NOTHING to do except sit around the house (thank you (not), COVID-19...) -- and yet only managed to read ONE book -- and that was earlier in March, before everything started shutting down. Surely I could do better than ONE book for the whole month?? 

So I went to my bookshelves & looked for the shortest book I could find that I could finish before I went to bed on March 31st. "On Tyranny" by Timothy Snyder fit the bill in terms of length, but I decided "State of the Union" by Nick Hornby would be a better choice... not quite so heavy, subject-wise (we get enough "heavy" right now from the daily news, right?).

"State of the Union" has a very simple premise:  a recently separated 40-something couple, Tom & Louise, meet in a pub for drinks every week before heading across the street to their couples therapy session. They talk about their marriage, about the upcoming appointment, and about the other couples they see emerging from the therapist's office.  (And they do the cryptic crossword puzzle.)

That's it, in a nutshell. Like many of Hornby's books (I've read a few, including "Juliet Naked," reviewed here), there's a lot of sharp and witty dialogue, humour and piercing observations. The banter was both a plus and a minus -- great reading & insights, but there was SO much back-and-forthing that I would lose track of who was saying what -- and then have to count back to the last clearly identified quote to try to figure it out.

From the cover of my book, I learned it had been adapted into a BBC TV short-form series, starring Rosamund Pike and Chris O'Dowd. It is (or was) available on Sundance TV in the States (but sadly not available in Canada yet, so far as I can tell :(  ).  Like the novel, the TV series is 10 chapters/episodes long, 10 minutes each.

(Actually, I was surprised -- well, not REALLY surprised -- to learn from this New York Times article that Hornby first wrote the story for television and then adapted the scripts into a book. It's a very verbal kind of book.)

Has anyone seen it?

I originally rated this 3.5 stars on Goodreads, rounded up to 4. I've since reconsidered & am changing my rating to a solid 4 stars. The back-and-forth dialogue can be confusing at times, but the whole premise is brilliant, and I did enjoy it very much.

(Hoping for a more productive reading month in April, especially since it looks like we'll all be social distancing at home for a while yet...!)

This was Book #11 read to date in 2020 (Book #2 finished in March). I'm currently at 37% of my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 30 books, and am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books ahead of schedule to meet my goal. :)