Book Review: Not A Star by Nick Hornby

It is difficult with a straight face to recommend that anyone go out and buy a 72 page paperback book for 12 bucks.    While I am not in any way opposed to short stories or novellas,  and even once recommended a volume of Flash Fiction,  I do take issue with publishers who present a short manuscript as a book.     I understand publication and production  costs enough to realize why these very short volumes have such comparatively high sticker prices but still twelve bucks for a short story just seems over the top to me.    And I have never read any of Hornby’s other well received novels,  so I am no one to say if this book will appeal to fans of his earlier work or not.        With those caveats,  I will say that I happened across  Not A Star at work Friday and read it on my lunch hour.    I did rather enjoy the story about a woman whose friend drops off a DVD of a porn movie in which her son appears as a featured performer.     It was a bit like a gory car wreck that takes place before your eyes.    The horror is palpable but the scene is so compelling that you just have to look.   Or in this instance read.     If you are not rich,  but find the premise interesting click on the book cover to borrow it from the library.

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