A Letter to Nick Hornby referring to his novel "About a Boy"

                                      

                                                 

 

                                                

                                               A Fan

                                               Lovely Street 3
                                               12453 Berlin

                                               Germany 

Nick Horby

Example-Street 67
South-East London
England

                                                                                                                                      29th January 2012

 

Dear Mr Hornby,

I am a student from a secondary school in Berlin, Germany. For a project work I had to read your novel “About a Boy”. I have to admit that I was in possession of your book for almost two years before I finally read it out of necessity. Not even the enthusiastic editorial comments on the back of the book could change my mind that “About a Boy” would be just one of these typical "school-novels" you are supposed to read in 9th grade.
So I grabbed the book, hoping that my concerns would turn out to have been wrong and my work would not be a result of deadly dullness. 
But I honestly was amazed by this novel. It got me right from the first page and I just got stuck in it. It is just too good to put it down, the story is incredibly gripping and I finished it in two days, giggling like mad on every page, sometimes even laughing out loud.
I just love the way you describe the characters. Every single one of them is depicted so well, so lovingly detailed and with such a great humour that it is an absolute pleasure to follow the story. You almost get the impression of knowing the characters in person. 

But the thing I liked the most was that the reader was able to follow the development of the two main characters throughout the story by noticing tiny differences in their behaviour. Will, a modern version of Peter Pan and Marcus, a boy who is acting like an adult – I adored them both. 

Will is just hilarious in his way of trying to avoid any kind of trouble and describing things with cynicism and sarcasm while Marcus is completely unable to understand any sort of humour. But ironically he is just the funniest person of the world, because the serious way he comments on things makes it sound as if Marcus has got a very dry sense of humour.
I don’t really have a favourite part in your novel, because every scene is extraordinary. The dialogues are especially noteworthy! You can’t read through them without a smile on your lips. Needless to say that I liked the happy ending, especially as it is not kitschy.
But Marcus being so peculiar just really got me. It almost seemed like he is repelled by the people surrounding him. He is too different from everybody else, he is too unique. Now, can you be too unique? I would never have considered the fact that being too unique could be a bad thing. But apparently it is! So I wondered, do you think that we live in a world where you can only be accepted by adapting to the conditions surrounding you?

Yours Sincerely,

A Fan

Book Review of "About a Boy"

Book Review

The novel “About a Boy”, written by Nick Hornby and published in 1998, really got me right from the start.
Nick Hornby has got this great talent to tell you such important things about life by showing you how it sometimes can hit you in the head with a brick without ever getting flat. He rather creates a mixture of cynicism and seriousness throughout the story, providing an impression of lightness. So even though the novel deals with such touching themes, it never gets melodramatic. It is written in such a detailed, amusing kind of way – the characters are so well described and unbelievably hilarious - that you just honestly enjoy reading it.
In fact, the two main characters are just the each opposite, ironically perfect for helping each other out of the situations they are stuck in.
Will is a 36 year old version of Peter Pan. A kid in an adult’s body, having a life which is all about music, shopping, drugs, and women, and that is too scared to take responsibilities or to care for anyone else than himself. His philosophy is staying out of trouble.
Marcus is a nerdy twelve-year-old, who is much older in his way of thinking affected by the experiences he has made, for instance his mother trying to kill herself or to be bullied in school. Marcus is peculiar. He does not understand any sort of irony or sarcasm, but the serious way he is saying things is often perceived as hilarious by others, because it sounds like deadpan humour.
Will never had to work in his life, because of his dad being a “one-hit-wonder”. Therefore he never had anything to be proud of. So he started to invent new versions of himself to catch the people’s interest. He discovers that single mothers are an easy prey, because they are searching for a “nice single dad” who understands their feelings. Thus Will, pretending to be a single dad, starts going to single-parents-meetings. He gets introduces to Marcus by Suzie, a friend of his mum Fiona, who is a bit eccentric and besides depressive.
On the “Dead-ducks-day” (Marcus killed a dug by shying a bread at it) Suzie, Marcus and Will find Fiona on the couch after she had tried to commit suicide. This changes the lives of Will and Marcus completely.
By and by Will teaches Marcus how to be a child again, how to be cool and to be accepted from the people around him – and Marcus, with his persistence to show up at Will’s flat, ignoring Will’s attempts to push him and any emotionality away, forces Will to deal with feelings, to care and to act like a grown up. Marcus manages to get Will out of his egocentric life to give it a meaning.
The novel is variantly written from Will’s and Marcus’ perspectives. Along with great dialogs and extraordinary characters Nick Hornby creates a phenomenally good novel!
I personally have mixed feelings about Marcus. I actually love him, because he is just so – individual. He does not fit into anywhere. He is too honest, too weird, too smart, too thoughtful, too emotionless, and too different. But he is great just the way he is, too, even just because the fact that he is so different. And I think that is the most important message the novel provides us. That, no matter how different and weird human beings can be, we all have our quirks and nobody is perfect, that it is just that what makes life interesting and worth living.    

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