English Book Club: ‘About a boy’ by Nick Hornby

Set in 1993 London, About a Boy features two main protagonists: Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus Brewer, an incongruous schoolboy described as ‘introverted’ by his suicidal mother, Fiona, despite his tendencies to bond and interact with people.

Will’s father wrote a successful Christmas song, the royalties of which have afforded Will the ability to remain voluntarily redundant throughout his life – he spends his huge amounts of free time immersing himself in 1990s culture, drinking, using soft drugs and pursuing sexual relations with women.

At thirty-six, Will’s as hip as a teenager. He’s single, child-free, goes to the right clubs and knows which trainers to wear. He’s also found a great way to score with women: attend single parents’ groups full of available (and grateful) mothers, all hoping to meet a Nice Guy.
Which is how Will meets Marcus, the oldest twelve-year-old on the planet. Marcus is a bit strange: he listens to Joni Mitchell and Mozart, looks after his mum and has never owned a pair of trainers. But Marcus latches on to Will – and won’t let go. Can Will teach Marcus how to grow up cool? And can Marcus help Will just to grow up?

The title is a reference to the song “About a girl” by Nirvana. This was confirmed by the author in the 2 December 2001 edition of the BBC Radio 4 series, “Book Club”. The band is also mentioned several times in the book.

Nick Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English novelist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter. Hornby’s work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2013.

Hornby published his first book in 1992, a collection of essays about american writers such as Tobias Wolff and Ann Beattie, titled Contemporary American Fiction. Hornby’s second book, Fever Pitch, also published in 1992, is an autobiographical story detailing his fanatical support for Arsenal Football Club. In 1997, the memoir was adapted for film in the UK.

High Fidelity — his third book and first novel — was published in 1995. The novel, about a neurotic record collector and his failed relationships, was adapted into a 2000 film starring John Cusack, and a Broadway musical in 2006.

His second novel, About a Boy, published in 1998, is about two “boys”. Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult starred in the 2002 film version.

Hornby has also written essays on various aspects of popular culture, and in particular, he has become known for his writing on pop music and mix tape enthusiasts.

In 2010, Hornby co-founded the Ministry of Stories, a non-profit organisation in East London dedicated to helping children and young adults develop writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.

Hornby has also developed a career as a screenwriter, and has said that he enjoys the challenge of working in film as opposed to writing novels. He has written the screenplays of Fever Pitch (1997), An education (2009), Wild (2014) and Brooklyn (2015).

You can find his books (in english, catalan and spanish) at Biblioteques de Vilanova catalogue: Nick Hornby.

The English Book Club will meet again on March 4th at Armand Cardona Torrandell library.

Here you can watch the film trailer.