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Loading... About a Boy (original 1998; edition 1998)by Nick Hornby
Work detailsAbout a Boy by Nick Hornby (1998)
 veracite | Apr 7, 2013 |  It's been some years since I read this, but I know I bought it secondhand while on holiday in France & the UK (after having left a book behind in a French motel) and found it very enjoyable. It's difficult to recall details after such a long time, but I do know that I particularly liked the fact that this is not, despite initial appearances, a romance. (  ) Vivl | Apr 5, 2013 | Couldn't remember if I'd read this before; I think I've seen part of the movie, so the story was familiar, and Hornby's writing is fairly recognizable. An enjoyable read, though it's still below High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked. (  ) JennyArch | Apr 3, 2013 | A quick, easy and delightful read. The subject matter is not terribly complex, but what it lacks in deep, dark, existential angst, it makes up in its deft execution of the topic at hand. I think most people would consider this book a very easy read, the language is simple, there are parts that are embarrassingly funny (if you're reading it in public), and the characters are all genuinely flawed and likeable (albeit, caricatured for the purpose of the story). This was the first novel I read after having seen the movie, and it was interesting to see the differences the director/screenwriter made. I liked both for different reasons, and I think the movie had strengths that the novel did not, and vice-versa - this novel/movie strengthened my conviction that movies and novels are two very, very different media, even when the underlying stories are the same. ( ) deadseasquirrels | Apr 2, 2013 | I love Hornby's ability to create odd, flawed, weird -- yet wholly sympathetic characters. In About A Boy, a nerdy 12 year-old is getting bullied at school, and he turns to a disconnected, slacker 30-something -- who invented a two year-old son to make it easier to meet single moms -- for help. Along the way we become acquainted with a whole raft of interesting people, and like all Hornby's stuff, the dialogue crackles with energy. Hornby's protagonists are usually cynical 30-something males who are lost and rudderless, and by the end of the book, this one is moving in a purposeful direction, though it's all done without any cloying, Hollywood-style (re: unbelievable) miracles. It's another reason Hornby has become a favorite writer. (  ) TCWriter | Mar 31, 2013 |
 If it's comedy you want, there's a whole hilarity industry busily supplying the world of American entertainment -- except when it comes to the book business, where heroic exemplars of drollery have been a dwindling species in recent years. Despite the boom in waggish humor on television and in the movies, in the United States the comic novel is virtually a dead genre. A follow-up to High Fidelity, British writer Hornby's superb 1996 novel about pop-music obsession, About A Boy (the film rights to which have reportedly been sold for $3 million) is an acerbic, emotionally richer yet no less funny tale. Will (36, single, lonely, in search of a girlfriend and a life) meets Marcus (12, lonely, in search of happiness for himself and his suicidal mother). At first, befriending Marcus is merely an attempt to assuage a guilty conscience brought about by a life of leisure.
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0141007338, Paperback)Will Lightman is a Peter Pan for the 1990s. At 36, the terminally hip North Londoner is unmarried, hyper-concerned with his coolness quotient, and blithely living off his father's novelty-song royalties. Will sees himself as entirely lacking in hidden depths--and he's proud of it! The only trouble is, his friends are succumbing to responsibilities and children, and he's increasingly left out in the cold. How can someone brilliantly equipped for meaningless relationships ensure that he'll continue to meet beautiful Julie Christie-like women and ensure that they'll throw him over before things get too profound? A brief encounter with a single mother sets Will off on his new career, that of "serial nice guy." As far as he's concerned--and remember, concern isn't his strong suit--he's the perfect catch for the young mother on the go. After an interlude of sexual bliss, she'll realize that her child isn't ready for a man in their life and Will can ride off into the Highgate sunset, where more damsels apparently await. The only catch is that the best way to meet these women is at single-parent get-togethers. In one of Nick Hornby's many hilarious (and embarrassing) scenes, Will falls into some serious misrepresentation at SPAT ("Single Parents--Alone Together"), passing himself off as a bereft single dad: "There was, he thought, an emotional truth here somewhere, and he could see now that his role-playing had a previously unsuspected artistic element to it. He was acting, yes, but in the noblest, most profound sense of the word."What interferes with Will's career arc, of course, is reality--in the shape of a 12-year-old boy who is in many ways his polar opposite. For Marcus, cool isn't even a possibility, let alone an issue. For starters, he's a victim at his new school. Things at home are pretty awful, too, since his musical therapist mother seems increasingly in need of therapy herself. All Marcus can do is cobble together information with a mixture of incomprehension, innocence, self-blame, and unfettered clear sight. As fans of Fever Pitch and High Fidelity already know, Hornby's insight into laddishness magically combines the serious and the hilarious. About a Boy continues his singular examination of masculine wish-fulfillment and fear. This time, though, the author lets women and children onto the playing field, forcing his feckless hero to leap over an entirely new--and entirely welcome--set of emotional hurdles. (retrieved from Amazon Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:58:42 -0400) A comedy on a bachelor in London who specializes in affairs with single mothers. To improve his chances, he joins a single parents' association and gets a boy to pretend he is his son. (summary from another edition) |
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 Audible.comTwo editions of this book were published by Audible.com.
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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Will let Marcus butter the crumpets because he loved doing it. It was much better than buttering toast, beccause with toast you had that thing where if the butter was too cold and hard all you could do was scrape off the brown that made toast what it was, and he hated that. With crumpets it was effortless: you just put a lump of butter on top, waited for a few seconds, then messed it about until it started to disappear into the holes. It was one of the few occasions in life where things seemed to go right every time.
Crumpets! (