HOW TO BE GOOD
is also a great example of how to be a good book. If nothing else then definitely at showing the dilemmatic ordeal of getting one's head around of what is goodness and what is idiocy.
Katie is quite an ordinary English middle class doctor, mother of two young children and wife of the angriest man in Holloway, a man who is permanently miserable and spitting flames at everything he meets on the way but "undeniably" funny. In her marriage Katie is the good one but one day she finds herself in an existence that reminds of black comedy when her husband turns into his opposite ( or rather parody) and becomes "good" after a accidental encounter with a faith healer named GoodNews.
After a rather serious and grim start at a point of looming marital disaster, things develop into a witty psychological adventure which consistently provokes one main question: What exactly is it TO BE GOOD? (During the course of the narrative a lot of opportunities come to criticize some aspects of contemporary British lifestyle, too.)
The heroine who suddenly lost the ground under her feet leads you trough the pangs of confusion over her stereotupical, middleclass, longunquestioned goodness which becomes chalenged by idealistic revolutionary one.
This book is not trying to teach you a lesson. There are very few definite conclusions. The caricature style seems to correspond very well with the strategy of opening a light (but not shallow) confrontation of different perspectives.
