Her Fidelity by Katharine Pollock
It is now 27 years since Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity was first published. 27 is an inauspicious age in the annals of rock and roll. Saturn’s return. Those who perished aged 27 include Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain, among many others. It seems appropriate, then, that now is the time for a retort to Hornby’s classic from the female perspective – arguably, it’s long overdue. Enter Katharine Pollock’s Her Fidelity.
Having earned her stripes at Dusty’s Records after years of service in what she had, in her youth, imagined to be her dream job, Kathy ultimately recognises the depressing cul-de-sac of her career trajectory. So, she begins her cost-benefit analysis through the haze of all-too- frequent post-work drinking sessions. On one such evening she stumbles (literally) across her future lover. Unlike any of the men she currently associates with – and on that score alone – his candidacy is high.
Standing at the crossroads, Kathy seeks counsel from her best friends: Mel, longstanding colleague, confidante and invaluable ally; and Alex, a friend since forever, and so successful in her buttoned- down white picket life. From them she receives the blunt sermon she needs to awaken herself to her own narcissistic behaviour. Soon Kathy will have to choose between her dream job and her dream man. Or will she?
Pollock is a record store veteran, survivor of the toxic, male-dominated workplace thereof, and friend and former colleague of yours truly. Firstly, I must declare that I know that some of this novel is autofiction, and there are many familiar characters and scenarios. Beyond this fact, however, Kath has managed to craft a work of fiction that delivers a richly rewarding plot with credible players. Her Fidelity is a feminist coming-of-age story full of hip and sassy humour, and charming to the end.
