I'll admit that I've never read a whole book by Nick Hornby but I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that there's a bit less going on in his novels compared to Austen's work. Is there anything in what he's done that matches the importance of landscape gardening to good character in Mansfield Park or the analysis of the relationship between economics and marriage for women in Pride And Prejudice?
True, Hornby hasn't exactly turned the idea of a rigid, patriarchal structure on its head (though the impact of Austen's work does have a nearly two century advantage over Hornby's), but I would say he does go at great lengths to really flesh out his characters and have them grow as you read about them with, in my opinion, a very entertaining and innovative style of writing (I'm mostly referring to
High Fidelity and
A Long Way Down). I mean, in
High Fidelity, the protagonist Rob sets himself up to be this know-it-all hipster who's always the victim in his failed relationships, but eventually realizes that he's been a complete asshole the whole time (....kinda like
Pride & Prejudice now that I think about it...).
To be fair to Austen, I've only read P&P once, but am currently re-reading it (now that I'm older and, hopefully, a little wiser). But again, 19th century prose still drives me nuts.
If I may ask, which book(s) by Hornby did you pick up and, I assume, read through a bit?