Nick Hornby- Introspective Novelist Nick Hornby, a contemporary novelist whose genre-shifting work has influenced the lives and industries of many, is still very much in the midst of an illustrious career. He thrived in the 1990s, where he went from a state of total obscurity to being the voice of a generation of masculinity in the English nation. Often credited as the founder of “lad-lit,” a literary genre consisting of novels written by men about male life-experiences and growing up, Nick Hornby has been imitated in his art form but never completely equaled (Sullivan 133). A writer with notoriety for his wit and simplistic humor, he has exquisitely encapsulated contemporary masculinity and popular culture through identifiable characters …show more content…
He grew up in Maidenhead, a working class town west of London, which was the type of place you either aspire to move away from or you accepted it as your eternal home (Sullivan 134). After his parents’ divorce in 1968, Hornby lived with his mother and sister, Gillian, who also became a writer later on (“Nick Hornby,” Newsmakers). He would spend weekend afternoons with his father who spent most of the time talking about and watching soccer matches, and thus Hornby’s love of the Arsenal football club was ignited (“Nick Hornby,” CLC). Hornby attended Maidenhead Grammar School for most of his childhood life and later attended Jesus college, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England (Varadharajan). Hornby was granted admission into Cambridge even though he had rather lackluster testing results and previous schooling. (Sullivan 135). He writes in Fever Pitch characteristically making light of his success, “I applied to Cambridge University from the right place, at the right time ... even my poor A-level results, my half-baked answers to the entrance examination, and my hopelessly tongue-tied interview did not prevent me from being granted admission” (Sullivan 135). There he discovered he was just as knowledgeable in English literature as he was at English soccer, and his passion for writing and innate storytelling was born (Sullivan