About a Boy
by Nick Hornby
About the book…
This is a hip, smart, funny and touching
account of a thirty-something, unmarried and very cool Londoner, Will
Lightman, whose search for eligible young women leads him to invent a
young son so as to join S.P.A.T. - Single Parents Alone Together - a
support group for single parents. As he is incredibly superficial -
and proud of it - this appears at first to be the perfect solution. A
place to meet beautiful, available, somewhat desperate women with whom
he can have brief affairs, but who will eventually dump him in favor
of someone more suitable. The complications set in when Will meets
Marcus - a twelve year-old who is everything Will is not -- and for
whom being cool seems an impossible goal. He and Marcus form an
improbable relationship and once he lets this boy into his life, he
finds that not only is he capable of getting close to another person,
but that it can be a good thing as well. Other books by the author: Fever
Pitch (1992), High Fidelity (1995), How to Be Good
(2001).
About the author…
Nick Hornby was born in 1957, and is the author of: Fever Pitch, High
Fidelity, About a Boy, and How to Be Good. He also edited the collection
of short stories, Speaking with the Angel and is the pop music critic for the
New Yorker.
In 1999, Hornby was awarded the E.M. Forster award by the American Academy
of Arts and Letters. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and was a
teacher before turning to writing full-time. Before turning his attention to
fiction, Hornby was a regular contributor to Esquire, the London Sunday
Times, and The Independent. He has also written for GQ,
Elle, Time, The
New Republic, Vogue, and Premiere.
Two of Nick Hornby's previous books were number-one bestsellers in
England: the 1995 novel High Fidelity, a critic's favorite on both sides of the
Atlantic; and his first book, the memoir Fever Pitch. Film rights for
High
Fidelity were bought by Disney's Touchstone Pictures, and the major motion
picture starring John Cusack was a hit both in the U.S. and abroad. A film
version of Fever Pitch, with a screenplay by Hornby, was released in
England by Channel Four Films. Robert DeNiro's Tribeca Films and New Line recently
paid nearly three million dollars for the screen rights to About a Boy for
which Hugh Grant was cast in the starring role.
Nick Hornby lives in North London, within walking distance of his favorite
football (soccer to us Yanks) team, the Arsenal.
Discussion Questions:
1. Did you find the book uplifting, depressing, or
something other?
2. What do you think the author is saying about society?
3. What do you think the author is saying about the modern
family?
4. What views of life are expressed in this book? Do any of them hit the
mark?
5. What are Fiona, Will, and Marcus’s takes on goals? Do these views of
goals change or the goals themselves change?
6. Did anything about the novel bother you?
7. What kind of character is Will? Fiona? Marcus?
8. What purpose does Ellie serve in the book? How is she more than a
stereotyped "bad girl" character?
9. Although the book is set in England, would it need to be? What aspects
of the book could be set anywhere? What aspects of the book must be in
England?
10. What do you think some of the themes of this novel are?
11. Does Will and Marcus’s relationship go beyond
individual loneliness? Why or why not?
12. How do the characters evolve, especially Will, Marcus,
and Fiona?
13. What do you like or dislike about the ending? What do you think will
happen to each character from where the book
ends?
14. What did you find humorous in the book?
15. What viewpoints of depression are we able to see in
this book?
Questions
prepared by MPL staff
