About a Boy

Amazon.com Review 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 realize 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-fulfillment 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. From Booklist How cool is 36-year-old Will Lightman? Sub-zero, according to the questionnaire in his favorite men's magazine. Not only does he own more than five hip-hop albums (five points), he's also slept with a woman he didn't know very well within the last three months (another five points). Targeting single mothers, he joins a single parents' group under false pretenses and is soon drawn into the lives of depressed Fiona and her bright 12-year-old son, Marcus. Suddenly, his life is messy and complicated, and he's horrified when he realizes that he's now hanging with the type of people who gather around the piano to sincerely sing songs like ''Both Sides Now'' with their eyes closed. This is Hornby's second novel (following High Fidelity , 1995), and it's obvious he has an uncanny ability for homing in on wholly contemporary, often serious topics and serving them up in truly hilarious fashion. His skillful analysis of hipster angst has obviously struck a chord--this novel has been sold to filmmakers for more than $3 million. Joanne Wilkinson

will Is Thirty-six And Doesn't Really Want Children. Why Does It Bother People That He Lives So Happily Alone In A Fashionable, Lego-free Flat, With Massive Speakers And A Mammoth Record Collection, Hardwood Floors, And An Expensive Cream-colored Rug That No Kid Has Ever Thrown Up On? Then Will Meets Angie. He's Never Been Out With Anyone Who Was A Mom. And It Has To Be Said That Angie's Long Blond Hair And Big Blue Eyes Are Not Irrelevant To Will's Reassessment Of His Attitude Toward Children. Then It Dawns On Will That Maybe Angie Goes Out With Him Because Of The Children. That Maybe Children Democratize Beautiful, Single Women. That Single Mothers -- Bright, Attractive, Available Women - Were All Over London ... Marcus Is Twelve And He Knows He's Weird. It Was All His Mother's Fault, Marcus Figured. She Was The One Who Made Him Listen To Joni Mitchell Instead Of Nirvana, And Read Books Instead Of Play On His Gameboy. Then Marcus Meets Will. Will Belongs To His Mother's Spat Group (single Parents, Alone Together), And Will Is Cool. Marcus Needs Someone Who Knows What Kind Of Sneakers He Should Wear, And Who Kurt Cobain Is. And Marcus's Mother Needs A Husband. They Could All Move In Together! Marcus And His Mother, Will And His Son, Ned. Then Marcus Follows Will Home To His Flat, Where There Are No Toys Or Diapers, No Second Bedroom, Even -- And Certainly No Ned. This Was Valuable Stuff. If Marcus Went Home And Told His Mother About This Right Away, That Would Be The End Of It. But Something Tells Marcus That He Should Hang On To This Information Until He Knows What It's Worth.

hal Espen

hornby...combines A Skilled, Intuitive Appreciation For The Rigors Of Comic Structure With Highly Original Insights About The Way The Enchantments Of Popular Culture Insinuate Themselves Into Middle-class Notions Of Romance. —the New York Times Book Review

A wise, hilarious novel from the beloved, award-winning author of Dickens and Prince, Funny Girl and High Fidelity Will Freeman may have discovered the key to dating success: If the simple fact that they were single mothers meant that gorgeous women – women who would not ordinarily look twice a Will – might not only be willing, but enthusiastic about dating him, then he was really onto something. Single mothers – bright, attractive, available women – thousands of them, were all over London. He just had to find them. SPAT: Single Parents – Alone Together. It was a brilliant plan. And Will wasn't going to let the fact that he didn't have a child himself hold him back. A fictional two-year-old named Ned wouldn't be the first thing he'd invented. And it seems to go quite well at first, until he meets an actual twelve-year-old named Marcus, who is more than Will bargained for... A wise, hilarious novel from the beloved, award-winning author of Funny Girl, High Fidelity and A Long Way Down. Will Freeman may have discovered the key to dating success: If the simple fact that they were single mothers meant that gorgeous women – women who would not ordinarily look twice a Will – might not only be willing, but enthusiastic about dating him, then he was really onto something. Single mothers – bright, attractive, available women – thousands of them, were all over London. He just had to find them. SPAT: Single Parents – Alone Together. It was a brilliant plan. And Will wasn’t going to let the fact that he didn’t have a child himself hold him back. A fictional two-year-old named Ned wouldn’t be the first thing he’d invented. And it seems to go quite well at first, until he meets an actual twelve-year-old named Marcus, who is more than Will bargained for... Nick Hornby's second bestselling novel is about sex, manliness and fatherhood. Will is thirty-six, comfortable and child-free. And he's discovered a brilliant new way of meeting women - through single-parent groups. Marcus is twelve and a little bitnerdish: he's got the kind of mother who made him listen to Joni Mitchell rather than Nirvana. Perhaps they can help each other out a little bit, and both can start to act their age. Will, a thirty-six-year-old London bachelor, undergoes a change in his outlook about marriage and children when he lies to join a single parents group in order to meet women, and becomes friends with a needy twelve-year-old named Marcus Inventing a son got Will into a single parents support group, but rather than a fabulous new sex life, he found someone else's very real son--a 12-year-old with a lot to teach about being a grown up A comedy on a bachelor in London who specializes in affairs with single mothers. To improve his chances, he joins a single parents' association and gets a boy to pretend he is his son