The title of Nick Hornby's newest novel, How To Be Good (Riverhead Books), sounds more like a self-help guide than a novel. In fact, it seems that this is what Hornby is striving for in this work. Instead of a throwaway book to read on the run, he wants to get the readers thinking about how they can be good and what good really is.

He doesn't really succeed.

The book tells the story of a picture-perfect modern family with one girl and one boy living in suburban London. The reader views this world through the eyes of Katie Carr, a general practitioner approaching middle age who is constantly trying to be good. (After all, that is why she became a doctor.) She's trying to raise her children correctly and compassionately. She cares very much about the problems facing the world and she does what she can to help them. The problem Katie's faced with as the novel begins is that she no longer wants to be married to her husband, the self-proclaimed "Angriest Man in Holloway," David. In fact she's just begun to have an affair with a man even more awful than her husband (which can't possibly be good). David's mean and sarcastic and just downright, well. . . angry, and Katie just can't take it anymore.

Then something happens to David. He becomes good. The only problem is that he's not the same sort of good that Katie had in mind. Instead he's trying to get neighbors to invite homeless teens to live in their guest rooms and giving away his wife's money and his children's toys to the less fortunate. And of course there's the faith healer named GoodNews that he has moving in with them. Sound like a little much?

The rest of the story deals with Katie and David trying to piece back together their marriage while David's trying to save the world and write a book with GoodNews. The book, of course, is titled, How To Be Good.

It's not that the book isn't well written or even enjoyable to read at times. The main problem is that it's hard to care about any of the characters. Katie is just too self-pitying to feel sorry for and David is just so annoying whether he's angry or trying to help everyone whose path he crosses. It's not exactly clear who we're supposed to think is actually good. And the story is not exactly enticing enough to want to have to give too much thought to it.

Then there are the clichés. There are the new age faith healer, the sticky-fingered homeless teenager, the loud-mouthed, offensive conservative, and the friendly gay neighbors. All of these characters seem to have come from other outlets and are completely unoriginal. To top this off the children are hardly developed at all and come off as two-dimensional characters. This leaves Katie and David as the only two characters who have any semblance of originality and they're both too annoying to care about.

The book comes off in the end to be more of what it appeared that Hornby was trying to avoid, a throwaway book without any real redeeming value. That's not to say it's all bad. There are moments in the book that are rather amusing and enjoyable. If the reader can just read the book and not ponder the larger meaning of what Hornby is saying it could be a very enjoyable, light-hearted read. This reader's problem came in trying to find the larger purpose that seemed to be implied, but was all-together lacking.