[TZ8]≡ Libro Free About a Boy Nick Hornby 9781573220873 Books

About a Boy Nick Hornby 9781573220873 Books

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About a Boy Nick Hornby 9781573220873 Books

“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.


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About a Boy Nick Hornby 9781573220873 Books Reviews

The characters were the prime interest in this book. We have a very troubled boy dealing with a mother even more troubled.
Moving to a new area and changing schools can be challenging for any kid but for this boy it was a disaster. He was bullied every day
and part of the reason was his mother. Kids ridiculed him for the way he dressed. (His mother's fault). Marcus had problems at school
and had to deal with a suicidal mother at home. His father had remarried and had nothing to do with Marcus.
Another interesting character was Will, a 35 year old single guy perfectly happy living on his inheritance. No need to work and no interest
in anyone.
Due to Marcus's persistence they form a bond and Will helps Marcus.
Then there's Ellie. She's tough and even the bullies are afraid of her. She protects Marcus.
Ellie also has her issues.
This is not so much a "what's going to happen next?" book but a really good character study.
I highly recommend if you have read anything else by Hornby.

The story is a rather simple one - single man who is a bit of a jerk grows as a person in the presence of a young boy in dire need of a father figure.

Will, the single jerk, starts off trying to bang single moms because he realizes they are easy targets, but after he gets wrapped up with one that has a bizarre kid, Marcus, he finds things are not what they seem.

Will learns quite a bit from Marcus and Marcus gets a decent helping from Will. As Marcus struggles through his bullying at school he realizes things aren't terrible forever. He gets a crush on a girl who he falls for because she is so anti everything, but Marcus ends up deciding he doesn't want to date her because things in life are hard enough without making things hard for yourself for no reason.

Marcus learns a lot of good adult things about life, growing up, love, friendship, and death. Will learns that despite being alone most of his adult life, he never realized how lonely he was.

Great read. No silly ending where everyone ends up together or happily ever after. Just an honest conclusion where the characters can finally breath a little
I finished this novel in a brisk pace, all credits to the author for providing an hilarious read. It takes immense talent to keep the readers on track of a simple plot with lots of hidden meanings in it, Nick Hornby has these talents in buckets.
clearly I'm now a huge fan of his works, I have already read High Fidelity and now I have just noticed that one of my favorite films "An Education" is also an adaptation of his novel.
so this is not my first experience reading Nick Hornby, and i am a huge fan of the films based on his work (some of which he wrote the screenplays for). In the case of ABOUT A BOY, the first two acts of the book and the film are identical, while the resolution is a bit more of a broad comedic note in the film.
I think what appeals to me most about Hornby's writing is his ability to create comedy through dialogue by making the characters so different from one another that they may as well be speaking different languages. Almost none of the characters ever truly understand what the others mean by their words, though Will comes the closest.
Highly entertaining overall so I am happy to say this book is fantastic. It contains everything I love about Hornby books.
It has characters that the reader cares about, a very real struggles that any reader can relate to, and that strange accomplishment of solving every one of life's problems without actually giving a single answer. Great stuff.
It isn't the best book ever written, and it preaches a bit here and there, and people like this don't really exist, except...I loved it. It may have just been a matter of time and place and whatever, but it was exactly the book I was looking for. It's been so long since I've not been able to put a book down, simply because I was enjoying it so much. It made me smile with recognition and laugh with appreciation; it felt warm and familiar, even though the characters were alternately annoying and unrealistic. It's hard to explain, but I'm betting part of it was just how clearly I could hear Hugh Grant's voice in Will's lines...
“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.