Book Review - About a boy

Book Review - About a boy

By Robin Norling 31679

I have read the book "About a boy" written by Nick Hornby and published in 1999 by Penguin Books LTD.

I borrowed it from the local library. I chose it because I like to read fiction and I also like British humour, for example "Bridget Jones Diary". I heard that this one should be similar, except that this book is categorized as a drama-comedy novel.

Just like Bridget Jones Diary, this book also became a movie. That I thought I did not have seen.

But after reading the book for a while, I found out that I had. However, I must tell you. -The book is much better.

Modern British humour no 13413s1823n vels often contains a lot of jokes and descriptions of the ordinary life of the common people in England. Usually relationships and sex is involved, and I cannot say that this book is an exception.

One of the main characters in the book is Will who's a 36 years old man that never had a single job in his life. He provides himself with the royalties from a very famous Christmas song that his father once wrote, and that has made him lazy.

But he's not lazy on the women front. After a (according to himself) very successful date with a single mother that eventually led to a break-up, he believes that single mothers are the ultimate women to date for a man who wants a easy life with no responsibilities. But later in the book, he meets the other main character, Marcus - a little odd 12-year-old boy with serious problems. Every day he is being harassed and bullied by some kids in his school. His mother is in a deep depression and doesn't give her son any attention at all. Will starts to help Marcus and acts like a father figure to him and after a while, they both feel very pleased by each other's presence.

The events are mostly observed from Marcus eyes, but in the beginning of the book you get to observe things from Will's eyes and read his thoughts because the author wants you to understand how he thinks and what kind of person he was before he met the boy.

At first, he was a very shallow man who lived alone in a big, nice flat in the centre of London. He was driving an expensive car and dated lots of women, but as you probably figured out, he gets to an insight after helping Marcus and as time passes by, he becomes a better person, and I believe that is what Hornby wants the reader to understand. There are more important things in life which also makes you happier than material and shallow things and that's a solid circle of friends.

It is mentioned in the book that the story is taken place at the time Kurt Cobain, from the band Nirvana shot himself. I believe it was back in 1994.

The language in the book is written in a way that makes the book easy to read and hard to lay aside. The story in the book is mostly being told by using dialogs between the characters and sometimes describing sentences of all the events. The dialogs are funny and uncomplicated, and after a while, you can actually feel that you know the persons in the book.

The most memorable line in the book must be when Marcus tells Will in the park:

"I think I've killed a duck!"

He was throwing pieces of bread at the ducks, but then got tired and throws a whole loaf that hits one of the ducks. It was a terrible incident, which I cannot forget because of its awkwardness.

I really enjoyed reading this book, but I did not really find enough time to read it in the evenings, because I have my three-year-old daughter running around and wants to play. I found it a bit hard to concentrate, so I brought the book every day to work and read it whenever I had the opportunity. It is a real "cliff-hanger", mostly in lack of the warmth that you experience reading it, which makes you feel empty when don't. I strongly recommend this book to everyone who is interested in the human mind and that wonders about amazing platonic relationships between people, and to people that appreciate a good laugh.