Inventing a son got Will into a single parents support group, but rather than a fabulous new sex life, he found someone else's very real son--a 12-year-old with a lot to teach about being a grown up. From the acclaimed author of "High Fidelity" comes this national bestseller that "GQ" calls "Clever and winning".
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.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Not what I'd expected.:
I enjoyed High Fidelity immensely. I picked up this book because I thought it would be a good read about a slacker finding love. I couldn't make it through the first 50 pages. The working mum, the hipster. Too cliche. The story unfolded too quickly, and as soon as it did, I lost interest. If Hornby was a writer of elegance, subtlety, or immense, overpowering talent, I could have made it through the book. But he isn't. And I didn't. 1 star.
Loved it!:
ABOUT A BOY by Nick Hornby
August 5, 2008 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 stars I have read a Nick Hornby book before and enjoyed it, and this book did not disappoint me either. The main character is Will Freeman, a man that has never had to work a day in his life, and he loves it. His father made money off of a Xmas song he had penned decades ago, and now Will was living off the royalties, both of his parents now deceased. It wasn't the life of a millionaire, but he was comfortable and that was all... more info
Funny and entertaining:
This book is an easy read. There are many hilarious moments. Hornby adeptly mines the rich vein of humor in male female relationships. His is an exclusively male perspective, even more so because he is a British male. Still, he pokes so much fun at his protagonist Will that I think women will enjoy this too. Hornby novels are always entertaining. He is funny and occasionally touching, but you always know that this is a comedy. Nevertheless, Hornby usually inserts his own view of the universe into his... more info
Pretty good read:
Have to admit that at first I thought this book would be another of the typical "overly mature child teaches childish adult how to be a grown up. At the same time the adult teaches the child how to be a kid." Because I've heard that story...a couple of times. But I have to say that I really enjoyed this story. This isn't just a case of the kid that got ignored or abandoned and had to be the grown up for a while. If anything this is a tale of what happens when life events force you to realize that things in... more info
