About a Boy
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 womenandensure 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 ofFever PitchandHigh Fidelityalready know,  Hornby's insight into laddishness magically combines the serious and the hilarious.About a Boycontinues 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.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.