High Fidelity

Laura moves out of the apartment she shares with Rob. They have a clumsy, awkward conversation on the doorstep, then she leaves. Rob returns to the apartment and his life as a single man. After a moment of reflection, he goes to his record store. The store is named Championship Vinyl and serves a small but dedicated customer base of mostly young men. His employees are Dick, a socially awkward 31-year-old, and an aspiring musician named Barry. Rob does not share the details of his breakup with Dick as they go through the familiar daily routine of working in the store.

Barry arrives late. Both Barry and Dick are only employed part time, but they “both started turning up every day, including Saturdays” (41). Barry’s brash, talkative manner intimidates the shy, reserved Dick. All three men have a habit of organizing everything into lists of top fives and top tens, whether they are talking about music, films, food, or women. As the men bicker about music, Rob worries that he is wasting his life. 

Rob returns home and spends the evening alone, surrounded by Laura’s possessions and remembering their relationship. He receives telephone calls from his mother but does not want to tell her about the breakup. Becoming frustrated, he blurts out the truth. Rob listens to his mother cry on the other end of the line and believes that she is treating him unfairly. Later, Laura’s mother calls the apartment. He does not tell her what happened and wonders whether they will ever speak again. 

At work, Rob overhears Barry insult a customer for attempting to buy a record that Barry considers to be “sentimental, tacky crap” (53). After the customer leaves, Rob tells Barry not to insult the customers. The store has not been thriving in recent months, so they need to be nicer to people.

One night, Rob decides to organize his entire record collection. He tries to arrange the records in the order in which he bought them, thereby creating a kind of autobiography of his life. The next day, Rob shouts at Barry for a random remark. After the angry outburst, Rob reveals the breakup to Dick, who promises to tell Barry.

The following night, Rob and his two co-workers go to a concert at a run-down bar near the store. The American singer Marie LaSalle has recently moved to London and is playing at the bar. Rob finds her performance to be unexpectedly moving, particularly her cover version of a song he previously considered to be embarrassingly kitsch. In that moment, he realizes how much he misses Laura and how much he loves Marie.

During a break in the concert, the three men each buy a cassette from Marie. She speaks to them and asks whether they know any good local record stores. Barry and Dick enthusiastically invite her to the store. Rob is more hesitant, worrying that her presence in the store might make him act nervous and silly. He returns home to short answering machine messages from Laura and Laura’s friend Lisa.

Rob returns Laura’s call the next morning. They arrange for Laura to collect her possessions at a time when Rob will be at the store. After the conversation ends, Rob contrasts his heartbreak with the unexpected excitement that Marie LaSalle might come to his store. He reflects on his relationship with women in the hope that he will learn more about himself. When he returns the call to Lisa, he learns about Ian, the new man in Laura’s life. He arranges a date with Lisa.

Marie visits the store that afternoon. Even though she buys many records and adds the staff to the guest list at her next concert, Rob is unenthused. He spends her visit moping in the stock room, thinking about Ian. Rob eventually realizes that Ian was, until recently, his upstairs neighbor. He obsesses over how long Ian and Laura might have been together and how much their relationships overlapped. When he remembers how he could hear Ian having sex with other women while he lay in bed with Laura, Rob is gripped by jealousy and a sense of inadequacy.