Helpful Score: 4
I think the correct term would be "lad lit". This book is better than the movie. I read thru it "knowing" what the ending would be because I saw the movie. It was a nice surprise to find out I was wrong. You have to read it just to find out how it ends! Nice light reading and I laughed out loud several times. Nick Hornby rarely disappoints.
Helpful Score: 2
This is the story of Will, 36, a man who knows more about being a child than being an adult, and Marcus, 12, a boy who knows more about being an adult than being a child. This is the story of their unlikely relationship and how they each help the other to live a fuller, happier life. Definitely cute, definitely well-written, and definitely an easy read. I'd recommend this for anyone in the mood for a mental break.
Helpful Score: 2
This is a really good book. it is funny and smart and very well thought out. My husband and I were both able to read it and enjoy it.
Helpful Score: 2
I guess this could be called "d*ck-lit" as opposed to "chick-lit." Light, humourous, typical hornby.
Helpful Score: 2
Definately a 5 star read! Even better than the movie which I loved. I understood the characters more with the book and yet all my fav one liners from the movie were there for my enjoyment too. I actually laughted out loud alot (which I don't do very often).
Helpful Score: 1
I loved this book. Humour and wit.
Helpful Score: 1
This is so much better than the film they made of it. Nick Hornby is a great UK writer....and this is one of his best books.
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.
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.
Helpful Score: 1
Very good book! It's about a boy (ha!) who's mother tries to kill herself and goes through a lot, mentally. Her son is a bit confused and is sort of put on the back burner while his mother regroups. The boy meets Hugh Grant (in the movie, forget his charaters name in the book now) and befriends him, even though Hugh isn't thrilled about a teenager coming to his house all the time. They two bring out the good in each other. It's was a much better book than I had planned it to be.
Helpful Score: 1
So much better than the movie!
Helpful Score: 1
Love the writer's sense of humor. Good book.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a great story about a divorced, suicidal single mother trying to raise a shy, but gifted pre-teenage boy, who's looking for male role models wherever he can get them.
Marcus is twelve. Will is thirty-six. Why can't they both act their age? In his second novel Nick Hornby explores the connections people make when the so-called ideal family model does not apply.
Good book,I actually enjoyed the movie more. Hugh Grant really brought this character to life more than in the novel!
Just love this author.
4 out of 5 stars. I liked this book a lot and it filled in a lot of the gaps from the movie and helped me understand the movie better.
if you like books about karma.....and how small the world really is...when it comes to people...then read this book
Good book- very entertaining and heart-rending at the same time.
A great novel about a man who behaves as and adolescent and what he is able to learn about being a man from a young boy and his mother.
A man invents a child to attract desperate single mothers and finds himself caring for a twelve-year old instead.
Another great Hornby novel, but if you've watched the movie first, don't expect the squeaky-clean happy ending.
Quick, enjoyable read.
Better than the movie...a quick fun read.
It was not a page turner, but a good book to pick up and read a few more chapters when I had time. Sometimes it was funny, sometimes sweet. Occasionally there would be a sentence or two that were so good I had to read them out loud to my husband.
I like the book and would recommend it strongly.
I like the book and would recommend it strongly.
This is one of those rare cases that the movie is better than the book. Still, Nick Hornby is an engaging author whose characters are so real they're sometimes a bit difficult to read because they're not lovable, but flawed and human.
I really enjoyed this,alot of twists and turns,funny
Not a bad read. Not a really wonderful read, but not really bad, either. ;)
Much better than the movie. Has a lot of heart.
While Nick Hornby has never disappointed me, this story is particularly touching. A great read.
There is a lot of humour, as you'd expect from Nick Hornby, but there's also a lot of heart. Very good book.
I loved this book. It was smart and witty, and better than the movie. But then again, I\'ve rarely encountered situations when the movie is better than the book.
I enjoyed this book. It has some witty and off the wall humor in it. Worth the read.
Funny and surprisingly moving
Witty and amusing, a good read.
The only Nick Hornby book I liked.
I always enjoy books in which unlikely people enrich each other's lives and end up becoming good friends. About A Boy is such a story.
I love this book - and any fan of Hornby would too!
Nick Hornby is hilarious.
I saw the movie and passed on reading the book. Maybe someone else would like to have it...
I loved this book. Both playful and thought provoking. Unfortunately I won't be re-posting as it will remain in my permanent collection.
I really enjoyed this book. I had seen the movie a few times and wanted to read the book. I was very pleased. There are some similarities to the movie, but the book was better.
Great book, had me laughing, and I enjoyed it much more than the movie (although the "Killing me Softly" sequence in the gym is really fantastic, and not in the book). Highly recommend.
Enjoyed much. Slow start but becomes a good story of maturity, finding meaning and helping those that need it.
author of High Fidelity
