The Education of Nick Hornby

The "High Fidelity" writer on leaving "lad lit" behind, Jewish gangsters and fleshing out the world of "An Education."

What was his job, exactly?

He’s a property developer, an art dealer and a semi-burglar [laughs]. In Barber’s original piece it’s clear he knew Peter Rackman, who was one of the big property developers in England at the time, and a crook. Rackman’s behavior towards little old ladies in flats was so disgraceful it led to a change in the law. “Rackmanism” is still an expression that’s used in England. And Peter’s character was one of that little gang of Jewish gangsters that was around at the time.

How did you expand ten pages into a feature film?

The piece gave me three worlds: the world of home, the world of school and the world that Peter’s character introduces Jenny to. So it’s a question of fleshing out scenes and inventing dialogue, and then trying to look at what I thought the story meant. Certainly, Jenny’s complicity in her own downfall was an important part for me. I wanted her and David to get a double act going, where they were hoodwinking her parents — those scenes needed to be invented.

You’re known in your fiction for writing about commitment-shy boy-men, like Rob in “High Fidelity.” Was it harder to write out of a girl’s point of view?

The moment you’re making something up that’s not yourself it’s all an equal challenge. It also helps that we had a woman producer and woman director as a safety net.

How do you account for your great success in fiction?

I think people recognize the characters. I’m partly a comedic writer, though I think I take the people seriously as well — maybe there’s a total mix that people respond to. And my books are not hard to read. My attitude is that I have to work hard [in writing] so you don’t have to. I don’t like books being a struggle for anyone.

So you wouldn’t recommend “Finnegans Wake” as a good read?

It depends on your time of life. If you’ve got three kids and 20 minutes to read before going to sleep, I’d say “Finnegans Wake” is not the book for you.

You’ve been called the male equivalent of chick-lit. Does that bother you?

Over the course of a career you get called a lot of different things, and you start to outlive them. There was something in England called “lad lit” — fiction about guys, I suppose. But I stopped being called that. You just write the books. I really don’t take much notice.

With one foot in the music world yourself, you must have had a lot of input about the soundtrack of “An Education.”

We avoided rock music altogether. I used Juliette Gréco, some classical music, jazzy bits. One of the things that’s clear in the piece: this is the last time English teens were having a cultural conversation across the Channel instead of across the Atlantic. Everything then was French for those kids. The Nouvelle Vague had started, they were reading Camus, even French Elle at school. The music couldn’t be Elvis Presley, who was recording then, but had no place in this movie.

Why cast an unknown as Jenny?

How many English actresses below age 22 can anyone name? And there’s a degree of innocence about the character. I don’t think you could have chosen a 25-year-old whose face is very well known. It was supreme luck to find a girl who was right on the cusp of turning into a movie star. And Carey is going to have a long and fantastic career.

“An Education” opens in New York and Los Angeles on October 9th before expanding into limited release on October 16th.

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