Product Description

Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bitnerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26932 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
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 realise 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-fulfilment 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.

Amazon.co.uk Review
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 realise 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-fulfilment 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.

Review
Hornby displays his knack of turning a superficially slight tale into something more meaningful. About a Boy is actually about two boys: Will Freeman, 36 years old going on 18, leads a hedonistic lifestyle, funded by a Christmas hit written by his father in the 1930s; and Marcus is a confused 12-year-old, brought to London by his depressed bohemian mother. The two find each other when the childless Will, testing out a new way of meeting women, joins SPAT, a single parents group. Marcus has a lot of problems - a suicidal mother, an uncool haircut, and he doesn't know who Kurt Cobain is. Because he's different, he is bullied at school and Will, who understands these things, is able to help the mature but introverted Marcus come out of himself and learn to enjoy being a boy. Hornby writes movingly about the major and minor problems of living a decent, humane life in 1990s Britain. (Kirkus UK)

The originality and fun spilling over in Hornby's acclaimed debut, High Fidelity (1995), run deep and strong through this second novel, as a playboy pretends he's a single dad so he can date single moms, but finds his fantasies warped by the real needs of an unusual 12-year-old boy. Set for life in London with royalties from a sappy Christmas song his father wrote, Will Lightman does nothing all day except be cool - something he does extremely well. And he chases women, with intermittent success. When chance throws a beautiful mom his way, he makes the most of the opportunity, even though she dumps him because she thinks he's ready for commitment and she isn't. No matter: He joins a single parents' group, inventing a toddler named Ned, and is well on the way to another conquest when frizzy-haired loner Marcus and his depressive hippie mother Fiona intervene. They all meet on the day Fiona tries to kill herself, and while Will's really just a friendly bystander, Marcus, in desperation, seizes on him as the solution to their problems. He follows Will to see where he lives, and, after quickly seeing through the toddler ruse, takes to barging in on his "friend" nearly every day after school. While hardly in agreement with this turn of events, Will is still enough of a boy himself to recognize that the lad needs a hand, and finds himself caring enough to buy Marcus cool sneakers, which are promptly stolen by the gang at school who harass Marcus daily. But Will provides the key that gives Marcus a first girlfriend, and then is repaid in kind when he meets another beautiful mom, falls in love, and persuades Marcus to act as his son to keep her from getting away. Far more than just boys will be boys, this has the right mix of hilarity and irrepressible characters to attract a wide audience: an upbeat, unqualified success. (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Nick Hornby is a genius!
As a big fan of the film, and having seen it countless times, I thought it time to read the book (my first Nick Hornby novel). As is usually the case when reading a book after watching the film version, I already had a picture of the characters in my head, and was unable to shift them, altough this wasn't a bad thing, as I think the actors in the film were brilliantly cast. You can instantly see why this book was made into a film - its witty dialogue and simple, yet addictive storyline just screams out to be put on the big screen. The book expands on the characters much more than you see in the film, and also features many scenes and incidents which arn't included in the film version. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would recommend it above the film (which is still brilliant).

A smooth addictive read
What an adorable, fast flowing, interesting and perceptive book this is. More importantly,how does Nick Hornby make an apparently mundane subject so funny, interesting and endearing? I can see why people rave about this author.

The novel is a narration following the lives of two explicitly different characters and their unlikely convergence. We learn of Will Freeman, the thirty something epitome of self sufficiency and selfish indulgence. Then, of twelve year old Marcus, who is the human equivalent of a square peg in a round hole. The "square peg" being Marcus and the "round hole" being the world.

The way in which Hornby describes these different lives with such realism and comedy makes this book simply unputdownable. We experience the unlikely yet somehow believable relationship the two characters establish, and I personally just loved the humour and incredulity with which Will Freeman observes this unexpected development.

I enjoyed how the characters altered and changed. The adjustment and amendments in their ideas not to mention the downright flipside up backtofront viewpoint changes that were so very believable and charming, yet not done esoterically or over the pages of a 600 page tome. Hornby proves that if you stick with what is real to people, even to what is obvious you can create rich characters quickly. It makes me wonder if JD Salinger was one of his influences, it would make sense if you have read "Catcher in the Rye"

I did love this book, and in many ways I wish I hadn't watched the film first as it took away from the freshness of some of the more brilliant moments of comedy. I wasn't sure about Hornby after I read "A Long Way Down", but I stand corrected, and am well and truly sold. My biggest disappointment was when the book ended. Highly recommended.

Good for school
The book "About a boy" by Nick Hornby is about Marcus, a 12- year-old boy, who is not a normal boy, and his friendship to a 36-year-old man called Will. Marcus is bullied at school and his mother is very depressed and tries to commit suicide. Then Marcus is frightened because he lives alone with his mother. So he wants to find new friends and meets Will. Will is a man who has nothing ti do because he has much money.
IN my opinion the book is good for reading at school. It is easy to understand and it is not boring. You want to know how it ends. But in my freetime I would only watch the film because i read other books in my freetime.
So the book is good for school.