Book Review: About a Boy, by Nick Hornby

I saw the movie About a Boy when it was in theaters, which got me interested in reading the book. Basically, it's about two people who need to be brought out of their isolation. Marcus is a 12-year-old boy who lives with his seriously depressed mother. Will is a 36-year-old man who lives alone. He has no job, as he lives off the royalties for a song his father wrote years ago. His connections to other people are mostly superficial--friends to hang out with, but not confidants. His family members are either deceased or not close to him.

Will hits upon what he sees as a great way to meet women after dating a single mother. Single mothers, he decides, having a harder time meeting men, would be more willing and enthusiastic about dating him. So he creates a fictional son , a 2-year-old named Ned, and joins a group for single parents. There he meets Suzy, who interests him immediately, and her friend Fiona, who is Marcus' mother.

Will meets Marcus at a group gathering. Suzy had brought Marcus along with her since Marcus' mother wasn't feeling well. Needing to explain why he hadn't brought his son with him to the gathering, Will made the excuse that his fictional ex deciding she needed to take their son with her at the last minute. When they take Marcus home, they discover his mother, passed out after taking too many pills.

Marcus' mother survives the suicide attempt, but the experience leads Marcus to decide that they needed more people around them. If he lost his mother, who would he have? He starts coming over to Will's apartment (uninvited) and gets Will and Fiona to go out on a date together. Will and Fiona were totally unsuited to each other, but Marcus kept coming to see Will. At first Will doesn't especially appreciate this, but Marcus grows on him, little by little. And both of them change as a result of their relationship. Marcus learns how to be a kid, and Will learns how to be an adult.

The characters are great. Will is amazingly superficial and self-absorbed at first, to the point where it's almost comical. He doesn't like kids (he just wants to date their mothers) and avoids messy emotional entanglements, and then manages to step right into just the type of thing he tries to avoid. Marcus is a classic nerd; he doesn't fit in at school, wears the "wrong" kind of clothes, listens to the "wrong" kind of music, and is teased and bullied by the kids at school. He is very intelligent and astute, however.

The theme of the book seems to be the importance of relationships--real relationships as opposed to superficial connections--in our lives. I don't mean to oversimplify, but I think it's something that people take for granted at times, especially when those close to us are annoying the heck out of us. It's a book that will get you thinking about yourself and your connections with other people.