User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars
Not sure who I'd recommend this to, but I enjoyed it well enough.
It's basically a story about a fucked up guy with zero substance, a fucked up 12 year old dork, and his fucked up crazy hippie mother.
To me, none of these three were very sympathetic characters. I mean, Marcus was the only one who even slightly deserved any pity.
But even for a kid he was
gratingly dense. I just wanted to shake the shit out of him for being such a pussy! And,
YES! I
know how horrible that sentence sounds. Ugh. I almost hate myself for even typing it, but that's the way I felt. If there was an award for writing the most annoying pre-pubescent goober ever, then Hornby should get it.
Congratulations, Nick! You made me want to slap a 12 year old! And now I'm going to burn in Hell. Thanks.
Most of Marcus' problems came from his idiot mother, Fiona. She was so irritatingly harebrained, that she managed to make Will (a morally ambiguous liar) look like an
excellent choice for Marcus to run to for advice.
You could totally see where Marcus got his pathetic personality from, so I couldn't help but root for him to grow the fuck up and give her the finger. And I guess that's partially what this book was about.
Growing up, realizing that your parents
don't always know what's best for you, and telling them to stuff it.
Although, the
Mom in me thinks this is a
terrible idea.
Kids, if you don't listen to your mother, you'll turn out just like Marcus...Look at him! He's a zombie now!
*holds up hands*
Alright, alright! Maybe,
just maybe, it's a really good idea to take a hard look at the values your parents raised you with, and decide if those are values that
you want to live by. You
probably won't turn into a zombie if you deviate off of their path and find our own way.
But.You should definitely stay away from lunatic girls. Seriously.
Nobody needs that kind of self-inflicted drama in their lives.
As far as Will goes, he's such a non-person that I can't work up any righteous indignation for the antics he gets up to. He figures out that he can probably get a better quality woman than he's used to if he can hook up with single moms. Because, you know, they're a bit more willing to compromise about certain things.
Now, having
been a single mom, I should be irate with his character. But, hell, he's probably right.
I'm not saying single moms are desperate, but on the whole, your priorities change when it comes to dating. Or, at least, they did for
me. I was no longer looking for someone who was the life of the party, I was looking for... Come to think of it, I wasn't actually
looking at all.
But my husband managed to reel me in anyway. And he did it by pretending he
loved children and was wanting to get involved in organizing some sort of Halloween thing for the kids in his neighborhood.
ManyManyMany years later I found out that was soooo not the case. He had, in general, avoided children like the plague. I would love to be angry about that little white lie, but he's been a pretty darn good dad, so I can't really hold that shit against him.
*eyeballs Hubs*
Much.Will, however, did a bit more than pretend he enjoyed the company of children. He invented an imaginary kid of his own and then infiltrated a single parent's group in the hopes of getting a date with a vulnerable attractive mother.
Now, over the course of the book, everyone grows and changes a bit.
Will matures enough to face up to his insecurities, Marcus grows enough to stop letting his mother's weird beatnik stink permeate his life, and Fiona grows enough to...
Well, Fiona is still a fucktard, but at least she isn't crying every five minutes by the end of the book.
Thing is, that's sort of how life goes. Not everyone is special, cool, or awesome, and we all have
issues that make us unlovable and odd.
*
shrugs*
I guess one of the things we have in common is that we all hope to make a few friends along the way, and maybe even grow a bit before it's all over.
Or not.
Rating: really liked it
2021 review: Living off of his family legacy, lounging around in life, trying-hard-to-be-cool man-child Will has found the secret to dating 'hot' woman of his age… targeting single mothers. Insular, and almost on the edge of autism, straight talking 12-year old social outcast at school, Marcus having witnessed an attempted suicide by his (single-) mother, has come up with the idea that he needs to fill his mum's life with a man... Will! From this an unlikely and very readable friendship between a 36 year old man and 12 year old boy emerges.
As I read this book I kind of already started writing this review in my head, saying that as ever Hornby perfect captures a time in London to a tee; using yet again a man-child as a central character - BUT I just didn't feel comfortable on how the cast treated and behaved to someone with certain depression... BUT, by the end of the book I was in awe. So, yes, there likely significant triggers for people suffering from depression, but this book is about two children, one a man, one a boy, and the depression of another leading character is seen through their eyes, especially as chapters alternate between their perspectives. This is a contemporary masterclass taken the mundane and the cliché, with a spattering of mainstream humour, throwing in dead birds and the death of a rock star and altogether becoming a story about modern families, and two males finding themselves in this world.
Yep, I wrote what I wrote, this is a wonderful read - it's like watching an episode of Days of our Lives and realising that you just watched a masterclass in television! If you read just one Nick Hornby book, this is the onw to read; it's not escapist, but it is about change, personal growth and a great starting point for boys and men-children to learn how to live in the real world, whilst being a part of the real world! It's also an easy read, pretty entertaining and quite funny at times. Some of the women characters seem limited and/or pigeon-holed, but what can I say, this is from the perspective of two... children! 9 out of 12, my highest ever rating for a Hornby jam :)
Rating: really liked it
I have weird habit of reading books that were made into movies AFTER I've seen the movies. Dopey, right? I don't know why I love to do this. I guess just to see how it all turns out on the other end.
Anyway, this review is pretty straight forward: "About a Boy" is awesome. Like the rest of Hornby's work that I've read, it's hilarious in such a BRITISH way (so dry, the laughs usually coming from some poor uptight Brit's bumbling embarrassment). I also admire Hornby for writing consistently about men in a very honest and entertaining way.
In this case, he also gets into the mind of the eccentric, troubled Marcus, who's twelve and being raised by a depressed hippy mom who sings earnest folk songs "with her eyes closed" (this most spot-on description of Marcus' mother and uncool people generally comes up often in the book and always cracked me up) beautifully. Marcus is that tragically unhip kid who is completely deprived of television and pop culture. We all know him. He gets beaten up and teased, and his accounts of his life at school and at home (the narration tag-teams between Marcus and Will, the immature, lazy hipster that Marcus adopts as his own) are achingly painful.
This book is readable and touching. Highly recommended.
Rating: really liked it
About a Boy is a book that I've dreamed about - a meaningful book about human relationships ( as opposed to adventures) that is to the point and not chock full of rambling and embellishing imagery. Sadly, I'm very honest, and I can't rate this 5/5. The reasons why I like this book and why I can't give it a bogus score are the same. I'm very like Marcus. The old me is like the old Marcus from before he changed at the end. The newer me is still like him. But enough of us.
The titular reference to Nirvana hit me after the umpteenth mention of the grunge band. It was kind of daft, so many dropping references to Nirvana. But though I can see the point, it felt still gratuitous. The tricky thing that Nick Hornby has gotten into was that, it was difficult to pull off treating the death of a real person, more so when he's such a celebrity. I once based an essay on the death of former manager of Manchester United, Matt Busby. A friend of mine told me it was not conducive to a good piece of homework. He was right.
The clear and superbly understandable writing of the author was a conscious decision. It makes me want to read High Fidelity. One distinguishing characteristic of this book is its strong chapters. I feel a lot of thought got put into when to end chapters. The endings are definite, strong, and meaningful. That decision was very apparently resonant around chapters 15 to 18. There are books that have chapter endings such as " she was relieved to find the window unbroken" or " she felt at home here in the doughnut shop". Yeah, I read a quite a few cozy mysteries. But my point is, whenever cliffhangers are propped at the end of chapters in About A Boy, they catch the readers' attention. It was only at the end of chapter 32 that I noticed there were only two cliffhangers in total in the book.
I don't know why the movie version's finale centered about a stupid music day at Marcus's school. I was relieved when the book turned out to be different. In any book, there is a character most responsible for the book to end. A book needs to have an end, of course. In Lord Of The Rings, the person most responsible for the ending was Gandalf. Here the candidates for this accolade (is that the right word?) are Marcus, Rachel, and to a lesser extent, Will. They all precipitated events and the breakthrough, which was the emerging of Will and Marcus as healthier members of the society. Marcus allowed Will to get closer to Rachel. In a way Rachel got Marcus together with Will. It's not apparent, but it's there. So there we have it, my honest review and my honest rating. Bye.
Rating: really liked it
Nick Hornby’s writing makes me smile. His dry British wit, his honesty, his quirkiness, his nerdiness. It’s all so damn charming! I cannot file him as junk food reading because he is much too earnest and positive: reading his book has an uplifting effect on me and that if definitely not a guilty pleasure.
This is the book that inspired the movie with Hugh Grant, which inspired the TV show with David Walton and Minnie Driver. I will shamelessly admit to liking all 3, but the original work is still the best! I think that the movie and TV show (while it lasted) worked as well as they did because Hornby created wonderful and endearing characters you want keep seeing over and over again.
The book takes place in 1993, which is important in terms of musical references (the title is a wink to Nirvana’s “About a girl”, which is only one of the many references to Nirvana peppered throughout the book) and current events that end up influencing the plot, but not crucial to the overall arc of this wonderful little story. Will is a mid-30’s slacker man-child, living off the royalties of a terrible Christmas song written by his father. He had musical aspirations of his own at some point, but he abandoned them in favor of simply enjoying the lifestyle his inheritance could afford him. In his quest for single women, he winds up at a single parents meeting – and can only justify his being there by posing as a single parent himself… This leads to an accidental friendship with Marcus, a hopelessly eccentric (read: lame) 12 year-old, raised by a depressive hippie mother. This friendship will ultimately change Will and Marcus’ lives and help them both grow up.
Hornby describes some tough situations in this book, and while his style is light, it never makes fun of or trivializes the issues tackled, such as depression, suicide, single-parenthood. I admire Hornby’s capacity to be honest and sensitive about these topics: he avoids melodrama while being very touching, which is not an easy feat.
The narration alternates between Will and Marcus’s POV and they play off each other so well. Will is cynical, selfish and immature. Marcus is naïve, candid and much too literal, but uncannily aware of what is going on around him. Children who are old for their age often can’t relate to other kids in their age groups. Marcus doesn’t want to bother his mother with his problems, as he sees her own issues are taking their toll on her and he doesn’t want to add to her worries. All of Will’s friends are married and have children while he just sits around being “cool”. Both of them are effectively isolated until they meet and find a weird place where they can talk to each other. Their friendship is unconventional but they obviously care about and understand each other the way no one else in their lives does. They have plenty to learn from each other and their evolution is often hilarious as Marcus tries to become a little more hip and as Will attempts to enter into a real relationship with Rachel. I also love Fiona, the wacky hippie mom who infamously sings “with her eyes closed”; Will and Marcus’ opposite perceptions of her never fail to make me giggle.
This is a lovely, surprisingly deep little book about friendship, coming of age, love and family. It’s a heartwarming story that will not change your life nor will it reinvent the wheel, but it’s a pleasure to read and I warmly recommend it to everyone.
Rating: really liked it
Like most, I have read this book after seeing the movie adaptation with Hugh Grant years and years ago. The movie turned out to be a rather faithful adaptation of the novel, but featured a completely different ending.
The general plot of
About a Boy is well known. Will is a 36 year old single man, who lives off royalties from a famous Christmas song that his father wrote. Will doesn't have to worry about money and work, and spends his life largely without responsibilities and commitments. Looking for a new way to pick up women willing to go out with him, Will invents an ingenious scheme - he makes up a fictional ex-wife and son which are to be his ticket into a single-parent group, where he hopes to interact with eager single mothers. Despite having to constantly pretend to have a family the plan seems to be working, until Will meets Fiona and her 12 year old son, Marcus - who quickly discovers Will's act. Marcus agrees to not expose Will, if Will will teach him how to be cool like he is - what shoes to wear, what haircut to get, what music to listen to. Like it or not, Will takes the troubled youth under his wing - and in the course of their relationship both will learn much not only about one another, but about life itself.
This is a very entertaining and fun book to read, if not particularly memorable. Horbny writes with ease and the novel is full of dry humor and references to the time it was set in (1993). The growing relationship between Marcus and Will is a pleasure to see develop - how Marcus changes from an always serious, socially awkward and culturally oblivious young into a more typical teenager and slowly learns to enjoy life, and how Will slowly stops being the man-child he always was and learns about responsibilities of adults. It is a predictable book, but not unpleasantly so - and although it was probably overshadowed by the film made out of it, it is still worth reading. It'd be a good summer read, without meaning the category as an insult; those interested might consider putting it on their lists for the upcoming holidays.
Rating: really liked it
Brilliant - ok, that's just a bad homage to the Brits but really, this was a funny, sweet book. I'd have given it a 3.5 but with no half-stars at my disposal, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. Anyway - bought it b/c I was looking for High Fidelity at our local used shop but this was the only Hornby on hand. I'm glad since I saw the movie version of H.F. but not this so it was a good surprise. It's a love story of sorts - but not between lovers. Rather, between a mid-thirties man-child (Will) and a peculiarly wonderful twelve year old (Marcus). It's a book-long question as to just who is the 'boy' in question but ultimately we find maybe both are and again, maybe they're both men as well. The cast of characters also includes Marcus' hippie-dippy, suicidal mom, a handful of Will's female conquests & Marcus' Nirvana-loving fifteen-year-old dream girl (the setting is early 90's London). In combination they tread what could be dreary ground with endearing & funny psychoses, self-righteousness and sincerity. The dialogue is what's best here - you'll hear the English accents and rhythms in your head with every wacky conversation.
Great for a laugh. An easy read.
Rating: really liked it
Originally, I picked up a friend's copy of this while watching babysitting, simply as a means of amusing myself while the kid was happily playing with some toys. I'd already seen the movie, and figured the book would probably be something that I could pick up and put down fairly easily.
I was wrong.
See, I went into this thinking I obviously knew the story and the characters - but what happened was I quickly forgot about the movie version, and became fascinated with the story of Will, the selfish slacker who doesn't really have much of a point, and Marcus, the nerdy little boy who makes Will realize that yes, he does.
Once I started reading, I was hooked, and ended up purchasing my own copy, which I quickly devoured in about 4 days.
Rating: really liked it
This was a fun read. As I’ve seen the film a few times I was familiar with the characters . The major difference between them is the book being about 10yrs older (ie set early 90s) Nirvana and Kurt cobain are an important part of the story as Ellie is a big fan. The chapters alternate from the points of view of Marcus and Will making it evenly balanced over the two characters.
Rating: really liked it
I love an effortless read with depth. This is an interesting and at times hilarious story with very relatable characters and a delightful perspective on relationships.
5 stars! :-)
Rating: really liked it
Beautiful read for the end of the year.
Such a thoughtful book.
Rating: really liked it
What a surprising read!
I found this book in the Fujisawa library in Japan. My other choices were D.H. Lawrence and other books that boasted intimidating thickness. I suppose I chose this book because I thought it would be a breezy read. It was a breezy read! A breezy, enjoyable read with a surprising amount of depth and charm.
I had previously read one other Nick Hornby book: A Long Way Down, which was a morbid look at the lives of several people who try to commit suicide. About a Boy shares some of the morbid outlook of that book, but comes up feeling lighter and more entertaining. If I was entirely secure with the word "trash novel" I might call it that--as a compliment of course.
Despite its entire lack of pretensions (or perhaps because of it) it turns out to be a minor masterpiece.
It doesn't try to be overly deep, and it sort of rejects any sort of glib endings or hints at elaborate and deep structures to the world other than: "We're all messed up someway and we do our best to go on." Despite sharing some of the pessimism of A Long Way Down, the book finds ways to be funny and upbeat. It has the basic elements of great fiction: even despicable characters are likable, they go through important changes by the end of the book, and we are forced to come to terms about how we feel about these changes and whether they are good or bad.
So, if you're holding a can of beer or a glass of wine, let's cheer this no-so-trashy trash novel: a light read of great literary quality that also happens to have Hugh Grant's face on the cover.
Rating: really liked it
I can't recall if this was the first Nick Hornby book that I read, or if it was "High Fidelity". It's toss-up. I will say that "About a Boy" is probably one of my favorite Hornby novels. The story is about a spoiled rich man-child (in the movie adaptation, played brilliantly by Hugh Grant) who befriends an awkward high school kid and, in the process, learns how to be a better person and man. Very funny and very moving.
Rating: really liked it
i don’t get it
Rating: really liked it
This is an interesting book with a lot of different characters and character development. It was my first book by Nick Hornby but it's definitely not going to be my last :)
