About a Boy: Amazon.co.uk: Nick Hornby, Alan Cumming: Books

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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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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 the royalties of his father's novelty song. 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-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.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

About two boys 31 Dec 2005

By E. A Solinas HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Nick Hornby is perhaps the premier writer of lad-lit, the male counterpart of chick-lit. And "About A Boy" is one of his best novels, with its sensitive looks not only at male fears, but at how they relate to women and children. It's a far smarter, wittier book than you'd think.

Will is a single thirtysomething, self-absorbed and consumed with his own coolness, unattachedness and ability to live off his dad's song royalties. After dating single mom Angie, he realizes how to instantly give his sex life and image a boost: date single mothers, beautiful and desperate. So he invents a nasty ex-wife and a toddler son, and begins going to SPAT (Single Parents, Alone Together).

But when he meets attractive Suzie, he also meets the boy she's babysitting -- Marcus, a troubled, intelligent preteen who is picked on at school. Marcus's home life isn't much better -- his depressed mother has just attempted suicide. Despite Will's commitment to noncommitment, he finds himself slipping into the role of father and friend for Marcus.

Single moms, precocious kids, immature lads -- none of these things are terribly original. It's Hornby's way of handling them that is really original. And the way he wrote "About A Boy" gives unusual life to what could have been a TV-movie-of-the-week/lame-sitcom plot, with cliched characters.

Instead, Hornby has created a surprisingly mature book, by showing a realistic portrayal of an immature man growing up whether he likes it or not. But Hornby's quietly insightful prose is a little less self-consciously cool than in "High Fidelity," and it's also more focused on human experiences. And no, not just Will picking up single mums.

Will is a pretty accurate portrayal of men who work hard at being immature -- believe me, he's accurate. And that makes it even more satisfying to see him graduating into adulthood. Marcus's chapters are deeper, however, and it's this pensive kid who grounds the book. He may be young, but thanks to his saddening life, his mind is a lot more mature than Will's.

Postmodern Peter Pans and precocious preteens are at the heart of "About A Boy," Nick Hornby's sensitive look at the sexes and their children.

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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

I laughed all the way through this book. 4 May 2002

By A Customer

I read this book in one evening and laughed so often that my upstairs neighbours must have wondered what was going on. The two main characters, Will and Marcus, are individually very funny, because they are both so abnormal for their ages -- Marcus too serious and Will too irresponsible -- and have such a quirky way of observing and thinking about things that most of us never really analyze. But when the two get together, their conversations are just wild! They have such different ideas and thought processes that half the time they're talking past each other and the other half they're learning from each other. And because the author takes you essentially inside their heads, you can observe how each of them changes over the course of the novel.

In my opinion, this is the ultimate feel-good book. It should be prescribed for anyone who is depressed. And I’m definitely going to look for anything else that Nick Hornby has written.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

If you liked the film, read it. 2 Sep 2003

After watching the film of 'About A boy' I decided to give the book a read, after finding the film extremely funny. I was not disapointed. Nick Hornby paints a very realistic image of life as a twelve year old who is 'different'. Marcus's attitude towards life is very interesting, and at times extremely amusing, esspecially his lack of understanding of sarcasm.
Will's character, though not quite as interesting as Marcus, is still readible. His outlook on life is quote original, and you find yourself wondering if he will change before the end of the book (which of course he does).
However, I did find that Marcus's relationship with Ellie, his friend from school seemed slightly unbelievable, and I quite frankly lost interest in their exscursion.
Nick Hornby shows 2 'boys' who both have a completely different outlook on life, who come together in unusual circumstances, and hilarity in-follows.
It's quite a quick read, but good for a lazy afternoon.