About a Boy

Nick Hornby seems to have this reputation as an "easy read," light-hearted books that get made into movies. In some sense that's well-deserved, I guess--his books certainly aren't hard reads, and they make you laugh, and I guess you could zip through them laughing and be done with it. But Hornby also has a finger on the pulse of human nature, and the relationships his characters develop are telling.

In "About a Boy," Will is almost a caricature of the shallow bachelor, and Hornby takes this so far, it's laughable. But while you're laughing, take a minute to think--Will's not that different from a lot of people, he's just more honest about it...and yet, less honest, as he pretends to be someone completely different in order to pick up show more women. (And again--is that all that different from many of us? We don't make up fake children so we can go to single-parent support groups...but do we show our true selves to the people we're trying to impress?)

"About a boy," like Hornby's other books, shows how even the most hopeless people can be changed by unlikely people and events. And, it does so in a way that will make you smile, if not laugh out loud. A quick read, yes, but well worth putting more thought into than a 2-hour movie allows. show less

About a Boy succeeds where [b:High Fidelity|285092|High Fidelity|Nick Hornby|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327928082s/285092.jpg|2961887] does not, with a heftier dose of humor and more believable, rounded characters.

Initially Will reminded me a lot of Rob -- the self-centered man-child, unable to commit. Will's actually even worse, because he doesn't have anything he cares about. Thanks to the royalties from a terrible Christmas song his father wrote, Will has never had to work. He drifts through life without purpose. His slimy realization that single mothers are good prey leads to making up a 2-year-old son, which turns into a rabbit hole of chaos that completely turns his self-centered existence upside down. By the end of the show more novel, Will has undergone believable character growth.

Marcus (the titular boy) is another highlight of the novel. Awkward & clueless (and quite possibly on the autism spectrum), Marcus isn't helped at all by his depressed, hippie mother or his largely absent father. Will becomes an unexpected role model for him.

Marcus provides most of the humor with his literal interpretations & blunt comments, although Will's assholery is also laughably awful at times. show less

“This thing about looking for someone less different... It only really worked, he realized, if you were convinced that being you wasn't so bad in the first place.”

This is a coming of age tale but one about coming of age at middle age. Will is 36,does not work instead living off the royalties on a Christmas song that his father wrote decades ago, he spends his days lying around the house smoking,drinking and watching TV or listening to music or out shopping as he likes to consider himself 'cool'. His evenings he spends trying to pick up women for casual sex. In essence he is commitment-phobic. One days he meets and beds a single mother and discovers someone else who is also not looking for commitment. Suddenly he realises that here show more is a new source of casual sex that he had not previously considered so he invents a two year old son so that he can join a single parent group. While on a single parent outing he meets Marcus, a gawky pre-teen kid who allows his mum to choose everything for him,clothes,hair style,music etc. On returning to Marcus's family home they discover his mother slumped on the settee covered in vomit as result of a failed suicide attempt. Will soon learns that Marcus and his mum have recently moved to London from Cambridge and are finding it hard to adapt.Marcus's mum,Fiona, is clinically depressed and constantly tearful whilst Marcus is being bullied at school because he is new and different from the other kids thus realising that Marcus is having a really bad time of it. So when Marcus follows him home one day Will takes pity and allows him into his life. Later Will meets Rachel, a single mother,and falls in love with her whilst Marcus is befriended by Ellie,a rebellious 15 year old girl who is obsessed with Kurt Cobain and battling against authority.

The book is written with alternate chapters from both Will and Marcus so constructing a very interesting paradox between the too serious Marcus and the too irresponsible Will. This allows Hornby to show the same event from two differing perspectives with sometimes comic results that only the reader can visualize. Through their friendship we see both Marcus and Will grow. Will begins to realise that 'no man is an island' and that responsibility is not all bad whereas Marcus begins to stand up to his estranged parents and finds his own voice.

This is a relatively easy read with its language but not necessarily with its message which makes the reader examine their own relationships. I personally found Marcus's circus pyramid analogy very thought provoking. In a world of ever shifting relationships and changing family dynamics this is a very entertaining read. show less

I love Nick Hornby. His narrator's voice is like that of a great friend - you appreciate his humor, you understand him well, sometimes he drives you crazy....all the elements that draw you in and keep you engrossed in the story. I cared about these characters, warts and all.

Marcus, an unusual 12-year-old and Will, a detached 36-year-old cross paths in an unexpected way and find themselves forming an odd friendship. The two seem to have nothing in common, but somehow they bond. Marcus’ mother struggles with depression and his father lives out of town. In addition to that he is mercilessly bullied at school. Will provides a bit of objective advice about his life and a safe haven for the overwhelmed boy.

“Sometimes Marcus sounded as though he were a hundred years old, and it broke Will’s heart.”

I love the way Hornby writes and the characters he creates. You don’t actually have to like the characters to like the story. I really appreciated the fact that Hornby didn’t force some unbelievable show more romantic relationship into the story. He lets the friendship take center stage. His books often revolve around man-children who are terrified to grow up and accept any real responsibility. Will definitely meets those requirements and he bugged me throughout the book. He is supposed to be so incredibly cool, but he just came across as a complete loser to me. He has no real friends or family. He has never held a job in his entire life. Every single decision he makes is completely selfish and self-serving and he is a habitual liar. All of those are red-flags and if I found out a guy I was dating lied about having a child, I think that would be a serious deal-breaker.

Marcus was by far by favorite part of the book. His odd way of looking at the world (possibly autistic?) is so honest, but also heartbreaking. He’s completely logical, but can’t pick up on normal social cues or sarcasm. It’s his influence on Will, unknowingly encouraging him to take a risk and try to engage in his own life, which had the biggest impact on me. It made me a bit sad that Marcus changed so much by the end of the book.

“All three of them had had to lose things in order to gain other things. Will had lost his shell and his cool and his distance, and he felt scared and vulnerable, but he got to be with Rachel; and Fiona had lost a big chunk of Marcus, and she got to stay away from the casualty ward; and Marcus had lost himself, and he got to walk home from school with his shoes on.”

BOTTOM LINE: I enjoyed this odd story about an unlikely friendship. It’s not my favorite Hornby novel (that would be High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked), but it’s up there. It’s also a good place to start with his work. I have a feeling that Marcus will stick with me for quite a while. show less

I picked this book up thinking it would be light, fluffy summer reading. A few pages into the book a depressive woman - mother of the 12 year-old protagonist, attempts suicide. Despite the gravity of the situation, this book still manages to be quite humorous and insightful. The main story revolves around the confused pre-teen Marcus having a miserable time at school and not finding much guidance from his suicidal mother thus befriends the jobless, aimless rich playboy Will. The obvious plotline would be for the man-boy to teach the real boy how to have fun and be a kid again, but Hornby doesn't go that direction and the novel is richer for it. Instead the novel works on two levels having Will and Marcus get involved in some riotous and show more absurd situations, but these really act only as background to their thoughts and reflections on events as they puzzle things out. I'm really impressed by it. show less

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 show more conviction that movies and novels are two very, very different media, even when the underlying stories are the same. show less