About A Boy

ISBN: 0141007338
Author: Nick Hornby
Description:
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 realise 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-fulfilment 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.

Pages: 278
Format: Paperback
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: Not yet rated

Listed Copies of this Book

Details	Price	See More	Buy
Condition: Excellent Seller: Av3ngingang3l1 (No ratings yet)	£0.90 £2.53 (inc p&p)
About this copy: Good condition, light marks on spine and edge.
Condition: Normal Seller: numberthree (94% positive/16 ratings)	£1.00 £2.63 (inc p&p)
About this copy: A little creasing to spine and light tanning to page edges, otherwise in a very good tight condition

Some Other Books by this Author

How To Be GoodIn Nick Hornby's How To Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It's...
No. of listed copies: 5
How To Be GoodIn Nick Hornby's How to Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It's...
No. of listed copies: 0
Fever PitchNick Hornby has been a football fam since the moment he was conceived. Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby's award-winning mem...
No. of listed copies: 1
A Long Way Down'Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?' For disgraced TV presenter Martin Sharp the answer's pretty simple: he has, in his own words, pissed his life away'. And on New Year's Eve, he's going to...
No. of listed copies: 5
About A BoyA novel from the author of HIGH FIDELITY about a 36 year-old man who dreads the ruinous effects of children on his fashionable lifestyle. Despite this he poses as a single father in order to woo a single mother.
No. of listed copies: 0

see all books for Nick Hornby

Other Books in this Genre

Q And A by Vikas Swarup
Eighteen-year-old Ram Mohammad Thomas is in prison after answering twelve questions correctly on a TV quiz sho...
No. of listed copies: 0
Dawn by V C Andrews
1st in the Cutler series.
No. of listed copies: 0
Touched By Angels by Susan Sallis
Morag, Vallery and Jannie met the Reid boys when they all worked together before the war. When the boys return...
No. of listed copies: 1
A Dry White Season (flamingo S.) by Andre Brink
Ben Du Toit is an ordinary, descent, harmless man, unremarkable in every way - until his sense of justice is o...
No. of listed copies: 1
Borrowed Finery by Paula Fox
Paperback in good condition
No. of listed copies: 1

See all listings in Contemporary

REVIEWS

This book has not yet been rated