Nick Hornby - How To Be Good

I think there's a thread somewhere which expresses disappointment with this book - I'd like to say I loved it, it's an elegant send-up of well-meaning affluent liberals, so it probably earned him a lot of flak from fellow writers and critics, and on second reading it's full of acidic gems which I didn't fully appreciate before.
I also think he's been very brave
a) for shitting in his own nest, as it were
b) for writing in the first person and taking a female persona. I don't see this done very often by male authors - does it work?