Hornby seems to be confused about life, questioning its meaning

Neither does How to be Good have the laugh-out-loud humour of his other books.

At a time when we can while away the evenings watching people push each other aside with naked (in more ways than one) ambition in TV gameshows it is very interesting that one of our best-selling novelists chooses to write about virtue.

What, he asks, would a genuinely good person be like and could they ever be likeable?

I remember at school the trendy local priest once tried to persuade my class that even though Jesus sounds like a bit of a wet, he was actually very cool in real life.

We were never convinced and neither, clearly, is Hornby.

Spiritual conversion

He picks apart liberal moral values and the way the well-to-do eagerly fill out direct debit forms to Amnesty but cannot be bothered to do anything that might involve time or effort.

When David undergoes a spiritual conversion at the hands of the bepierced DJ GoodNews - who he promptly invites to share the family home - he becomes genuinely "good".

He actually "walks the talk" of liberality, he gets his neighbours to take in homeless kids, distributes the Sunday lunch to the poor and gives away his child's computer.

But, as we all used to suspect of Jesus, he is insufferable.

Examining goodness is one thing but it all felt a bit unsubtle after a while.

For instance, Hornby has a go at cynicism, which Katie points out is now considered necessary "to prove you are a fully functioning and reflective metropolitan person."

I am all for a novel about ideas, but the Big Idea should have characterisation and plot to match.

Autobiographical element

There are some brilliant characters - the sad Portuguese patient, the poignantly hilarious Barmy Brian, both Katie's "heartsink" patients - but these were peripheral and I was left unsure of what I was to take away from the novel.

That we are all ultimately selfish? I think I have heard that one before.

That sanctimonious people are unbearable? Yes, knew that too.

Hornby has admitted that there is an autobiographical element to the book.

Since he wrote his last book he has divorced, found fame in Hollywood and faced the consequences of his child's diagnosis with autism.

He has founded a school for autistic children - TreeHouse - and agonises over his involvement with it.

By the bleak end of the book I was not sure whether to laugh or cry, whether being good is better than not.

Maybe that is the message - Nick Hornby is confused about life and is questioning it - but I did not feel I needed to read 244 pages to find that out.

How to be Good is published by Penguin