About a boy... and a man
Written: Jun 13 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great plot and wonderful characters
Cons: Not as good as High Fidelity
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| Danhon's Full Review: Nick Hornby et al - About a Boy Books |
About a Boy was the first Hornby novel that I read. Listening, for some reason, to Radio 4 at about half eleven in the late summer / early autumn of 1999, Stephen Tomlinson was reading About a Boy on the late book programme. I got hooked. So hooked, in fact, that on the way back from visiting friends in London, I stopped into a bookshop, picked up About a Boy and didn't put it down until I arrived at Liverpool Lime Street station back home.
Granted, the journey normally takes about two and three quarter hours, but this being Britain and bearing in mind that I was on a train at the time, it actually took closer to five hours. Enough time to read the book from cover to cover. Rapt attention doesn't even begin to describe the state of mind that I was in.
You really shouldn't read good books on trains, especially if you're listening to music at the same time. You tend to laugh out loud. The other passengers stare at you the first time, glare at you the the second time, and then cluster round and point at you the third time. The fourth time they prod you with sharp wooden sticks to stop you. I hope I didn't annoy that many people, because About a Boy is about as witty as you could get, without reading, say, another Nick Hornby book.
The blurb on the back proudly proclaims that Nick Hornby "explores the connections pepel make when the so-called ideal family model does not apply". You might have guessed that this is a laugh-out-loud book. It's also a cry quietly inside book as well.
Quick plot summary? Will, a thirty six year old bloke who comfortably lives off music royalties from his deceased father, figures that a great way to meet women is to pretend to be a father. He meets Marcus, a twelve year old boy, with a decidedly "unhip" mother. And this is where the book's magic lies. Marcus, having had what some might call a sheltered upbringing really doesn't know how to deal with the world. He's twelve. He doesn't know what trainers to wear. He sits around the piano with his mum to sing songs, and he's a vegetarian. When he goes to his new inner city comprehensive school, he's going to get eaten alive. Will, however, thinks he's the embodiment of thirty-six-year-old cool, and what's more, it seems that he's a bit bored. Marcus thinks he needs a dad, and Will needs something, well, to keep him busy. Match made in heaven? You bet.
Nick Hornby delivers. About a Boy, his second novel, is nothing short of genius, and if it is short of genius then the incredibly small gap between About a Boy and genius is plugged by Hi Fidelity, his first novel. Buy About a Boy, thank me, and then wonder exactly how you coped with being twelve, progress to wondering how you're going to cope when you have kids, or alternatively wonder how you'll cope when you're thirty six, single and your name's Will.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Danhon
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Member: Dan Hon
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
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