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