About A Boy
(Nick Hornby)
I must confess I like very much Nick Hornby's writing. I find About a Boy the funniest novel he has ever written. I remember reading it all in one breath and laughing as hard as it has never happened to me. I think the author himself had fun in writing it. Nick Hornby has the extraordinary ability of creating comic or grotesque situations. His characters has an exhilarating sense of humour, although each one of those has a sad or more serious side. About a Boy flows through two levels of narration, which correspond to the two main characters: Will Freeman and Marcus. The first one is a 36 year old wealthy unemployed single man. He makes a living on the copyright income from a silly but famous Christmas song his father had written. Will is what people call a cool guy: sports car, fancy clothes, stylishly-fournished house with any kind of technological item. He is not involved in any love story and courts divorced women. He is very cynical but also tremendously childish. At some point in his life he starts attending meeting for divorced mothers. There he meets Fiona, a hippy and vegetarian woman who likes Joni Mitchell, Bob Marley and Roberta Flack. She is divorced and subjected to depressive crisis which lead her to try to suicide. Fiona has a son, Markus. He is a 12 year old boy who does not look like his peers: he wears old clothes and strange woollen hats, sing Killing me Softly in the classroom and listens to the same music her mother does. Will and Marcus get to know each other and Nick Hornby describes their feelings very well.
Explosive dialogues, comic but also bitter situations: Hornby mixes up his ingredients with care. At the end of the book, it is a pity that we finished. However, it is unavoidable wondering who the Boy of the title is: is he Will or Markus?About a Boy is the right book for those who have never read any of Nick Hornby's works. For those who already know him for novels such as Fever Pitch or High Fidelity this book will give them a moment of pure joy.
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