Introduction

It’s common knowledge that except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book, because books arouse different emotions in us, penetrate deep into our souls, and give food for our mind. A novel “About a Boy” by Nick Hornby is a delightful, entertaining and touching one. The book shows how people can change if something special happens, it also raises such problems as suicide, a single mother problem and it tells a lot about relationships between people. And now I’d like to speak more detailed about the plot of the book.

Main Part

So, the novel is about Will, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus, an eccentric, introverted, bullied 12-year-old boy, who change in the course of the book. Despite Will’s age, he isn’t really grown-up as he doesn’t take life very seriously. He never had to work thanks to the royalties from his father’s Christmas song hit, so he has a lot of spare time. Most of this Will spends smoking, watching TV, listening to albums, and looking for female companionship, preferably of the short-time variety. After a pleasant relationship with a single mother, he comes up with the idea of attending a single parents group as a new way to pick up women. So, for this purpose, he invents a 2-year-old son named Ned. It is at one of these single parents meetings where Will comes to know Marcus and a friendship develops. Marcus is an outsider. He hasn’t got any friends of his age, because he is weird. The boy has only one close person, his mother Fiona, who has split up with her husband, her ex-boyfriend and just feels depressed. One day the woman tries to commit suicide, but it doesn’t work. Fiona is a hippie and she doesn’t want to accept things that are in fashion. Besides, she is sure that she knows what is good for her son and doesn’t allow him to make his own decisions. Anyway, Will helps Marcus to fit into the modern world. He takes him shopping, buys him shoes and introduces him to the music of Nirvana. So, Will plays a very important role in the boy’s life. He is the one Marcus turns to when he need advice about the relationship with Ellie, a very tough 15-year-old girl, who is famous for being in trouble and everybody is afraid of her. Meanwhile Will starts going out with a single mum called Rachel and for the first time in probably years he gets a real relationship with a woman instead of having only one-night-stands. Besides, Rachel shows Fiona that life is something worth. In the end Marcus evolves and becomes a “normal” kid for his age. Will becomes more mature and ends up wanting to marry Rachel. So, all in all, Will taught Marcus how to be a kid, Marcus helped Will to grow up – and they both started to live according to their age.

Conclusion

In conclusion I’d like to say that I consider this book to be rather easy for reading and understanding. Nick Hornby is honest in his writing and his characters are very real. The author describes the feelings of the figures in a very detailed way, and this way you get to know how people change. All in all, I believe that this novel appeals to people of different ages, and I would really recommend it for reading.

The comparison of my weekends and Harry’s (“Harry’s Week-end”)