About A Boy

Overview

The novel “About a Boy “, has two main characters which are acted by Hugh Grant and Toni Collette in the homonymous movie.

The first one is Will Freeman, a 36 year- old bachelor who has never had to work because his father wrote a famous Christmas song. He thinks that everybody is an island and you can only live on your own. In the beginning of the story he is sure that he’ll never marry, because of the responsibilities. He has had a lot of girlfriends but he has had each one only till there is a little problem which he doesn't want to deal with, but then he meets a single mother and she becomes his girlfriend. First he thinks that a single mother would have a lot of problems and that he can’t be nice to children, but it isn’t such a problem as he first thought. After a time he wants to leave the woman, but then she leaves him first and Will is very happy that he doesn’t have to feel guilty. The man realises that it’s very good to have a single mum as a girlfriend and so he attends a single parent group. For that he invents a 2 year-old son, called Ned. At one meeting he meets a girl named Susie and with her, he goes to a picnic, which is organised by the single parent group but Susie has to look after Marcus the son of a friend of hers.

Marcus, the other main character is 12 years old, very eccentric and introverted. He has a lot of problems in school, because he wears different clothes and listens to different music than the others. That’s why many boys in his class make jokes about him. At home Marcus is also unhappy, because of his mother. She cries very much but Marcus doesn’t know why.

First Will and Marcus don’t like each other but after some time they become friends and Will helps Marcus to become a normal kid and Marcus helps Will to become an adult.

Verdict

I read that novel in a very short time, because it was very funny and I couldn’t stop reading. You can read it fluently and the speech is not very difficult. When you read the book it is quite easy to follow the story.

Word count: 400

I would advise the book to people who like funny and realistic novels. You can read it with every age and you will like it. I also watched the movie and I can highly recommend it.