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Par   •  9 Septembre 2014  •  940 Mots (4 Pages)  •  918 Vues

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About A Boy Book Review

About a boy tells the story of Will, a 36 year old bachelor, rich from an inheritance from his father who invents an imaginary son in an effort to meet women at single parent meetings. He meets a troubled 12 year old boy Marcus as a result and the two develop an unlikely friendship. Will teaches Marcus how to be “cool” and helps him deal with his depressive mother Fiona while Marcus gives Will the push he needs to finally grow up.

In her book review of About a Boy for the New Statesmen, Maggie Farrell admits that while she is a Nick Hornby fan, she is not a fan of this novel’s main character, Will. Farrell previously admired Hornby’s work because of the male main characters that were “emotionally irresponsible anti-heroes” that gave women a “glimmer of hope” because maybe it was true that men who acted like jerks couldn’t “keep the girl.” However Farrell is disappointed that in About a Boy where Will seems to be the typical “anti- hero,” he ends up changing his ways and befriending a 12-year old named Marcus. Farrell finds that the relationship between Marcus and Will that integrates the theme of “self discovery through children” is not a theme that “sits easily” on Nick Hornby. Additionally Farrell is not a fan of the novel because of “one dimensional” and “insubstantial” characters as she compares Will to a “to a knock-off bootleg tape” in contrast to the main character Rob from High Fidelity as a “limited edition vinyl LP”.” Farrell is also irritated by the charcter Marcus for his “therapised Oprah speak” in response to his mother’s suicide and other cliché characters in the novel like 15-year old sociopath, Ellie. She also disliked the novel for Hornby’s careless repetition of verbs like “wrestle” which is facilitated in many different parts of the novel and makes her wonder if even closer editing would have helped the book. While Farrell is disappointed with About a Boy altogether, she thinks this novel won’t hurt Hornby’s writing career in the future as he is still a great talent.

While Farrell was disappointed with About a Boy, Roger Eder from the Los Angeles Times book review finds it a “pleasurable book” that is an easy read. Eder says that even though it is an easy read, About a Boy is ‘provocative’ and will be difficult for readers to forget. Eder compares Will to P.G. Wodehouse’s charcter Bertie Wooster in Jeeves as he is a London bachelor rich from his father’s inheritance. Eder found About a Boy “inventively funny” but also significant with Will as “a figure of postmodern detachment” as he makes up a fake son just to meet women as a single parent support group. Eder enjoys the satire and comedy throughout the novel but sees a more significance in the serious relationship between Marcus and Will. He sees Marcus as the character who ‘arouses’ Will’s intelligence when he meets Will and attempts to bring him and his imaginary son into their family to help him with his suicidal mother. Eder finds the novel touching with ‘splendid dialogue’ that has entertaining elements but is held together with “emotional threads.” While each of the characters has the stereotypical happy ending, Eder beliefs that the intense emotions created by Hornby save the story and keep the ‘nice’ characters, Will and Marcus, from falling flat.

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