“About a Boy is a sweet, charming, and dryly humorous novel, one that was a joy to read. Author Nick Hornby has a definite skill for conversation, drawing relatable people, and infusing it all with plenty of bone dry quips and emotional engagement. What’s most satisfying is that Hornby manages to be perceptive and sage while keeping the reader from getting bogged down in excess verbosity. In short, he does a lot with a little and had me re-reading passages just to marvel at the simple brilliance in his writing. This one is the highlight for me: “This thing about looking for someone less different... It only really worked, he realized, if you were convinced that being you wasn't so bad in the first place.” That line almost had me in tears.
The movie, which sent many searching for this book, took liberties, as they often do, but they also cast the characters perfectly. It’s nigh on impossible not to see the actors in my mind as I read, and while that can be a spoiler of sorts, in this case, it was a perfect augmentation. Still, the plot of the movie took a serious left turn about the time that Will meets Rachel. Furthermore, there is a lot of Ellie (Marcus’ crush in the movie) that never made the movie, especially her connection with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, a theme that runs through the novel. Why something so easy to include in the movie was left out in favor of a fair amount of plot contrivances that were never in the book is a mystery to me.
I’ve been reading a lot of fairly easy fiction lately and it’s a lovely break from both reality and the stack of philosophically deep, but ultimately dry and ponderous books I’ve been bogging down in lately. If you’re looking for a smart and funny novel that can be read in a few days, you might find “About a Boy” as pleasant and entertaining as I did. I may just investigate another of Hornby’s works, and I can think of no better compliment.
- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books, Limited (UK) (April 4, 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9780141007335
- ISBN-13: 978-0141007335
- ASIN: 0141007338
- Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 0.7 x 7.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: 305 customer reviews
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#2,828,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #71463 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
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