Quotidian Classics: Nick Hornby's Lad Lit

Abstract

This essay explores the genre of lad lit and Nick Hornby's contribution to the genre. Hornby's focus is on the quotidian, specifically the male experience in the 1990s and their relationship with football and Popular culture, thus bringing ordinary lives closer to canon. Lad lit has only been addressed academically to a certain extent, but Hornby's work holds up to critical review and deserves to be treated as such. Firstly, Hornby's works are brought into historical context and viewed through feminist lens. Secondly, we apply psychoanalytic approaches, citing Freud as well as Lacan, and viewing Hornby's work through discourses on melancholia and addiction. Finally, we address identity and readership. Through these methods we find that Hornby’s lad literature is made distinct by the obsessions that seem to rule the protagonists’ lives and define their identities – so much so that they border on addiction. To re-join society they must adapt, which requires deep introspection for the lads to lead meaningful lives. What we can take away from this discussion is that Hornby's work pertains to the human experience, and because he treats it with humor and skill it is made that much more accessible to the average reader. Hornby asserts that the joy of reading is of the upmost importance, and the author of this paper agrees wholeheartedly. Hornby's wilting taps directly into the reader's stream of consciousness in an automatic process such that time ceases to exist until the pagers run out. The ease of Hornby writing has become increasingly important in our day and age where multiple agents compete for every second of our attention and close reading of canonical classics can be strenuous.