Before the film version starting John Cusack and then-rising-star Jack Black came out, Nick Hornby wrote the book "High Fidelity." And if you thought the movie was good, check out the book.
The basic storyline of the 1995 novel and the 2000 film are the same, but, as is usually the case when a book is converted into a movie, there are a few changes. The biggest of these alterations is the change in the setting.
In the book, the action takes place in a record shop in London. In the movie, the action takes place in a record shop in Chicago.
London. Chicago. No difference, right? Well, apparently not to readers and viewers.
The book, Hornby's first true attempt at fiction after writing the memoir "Fever Pitch," was a best seller, and the film was both a critical and commercial success.
Cusack fits perfectly into the film role of elitist, smug record shop owner Rob Gordon. It probably did not hurt his performance too much that he helped write the screenplay after reading the book. Supposedly, Hornby enjoyed Cusack's portrayal of Gordon so much that he wanted him to play all the male leads in his books-made-into-movies from then on.
While that did not happen, Hornby's other books have also translated fairly well onto the big screen. "Fever Pitch" was made into a film by Channel Four Films out of England, and "About a Boy," starring Hugh Grant, was a moderate success by way of Robert DeNiro's Tribeca Films and Newline. Who knows when his latest novel, "How to Be Good," will be bought and made into a screenplay.
Still, "High Fidelity" remains at the most highly regarded of all of Hornby's works, both as a work of literature and of film.
Sure, in the book there is no audio of Black belting out Marvin Gaye's hit "Let's Get It On," but it is still worth the read.
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