Key themes
- Refusing to grow up — and what forces you to finally do it
- The unexpected family and what it teaches
- Will's island and the twelve-year-old who swims to it
About this book
Will Freeman, a wealthy, commitment-phobic 36-year-old who has never grown up, begins attending a single parents' support group to meet women. He meets Marcus, an awkward twelve-year-old whose mother is depressed, and the two form an unlikely relationship that changes both of them. Hornby's novel is about maturity, responsibility and the unexpected routes to both.
Published in 1998, About a Boy was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and adapted into a film with Hugh Grant. Hornby described Will as a deliberate portrait of the consequences of irresponsibility at the level of actual human connection.
Discussion questions
- Will has constructed a life of deliberately perpetual adolescence — no responsibilities, no commitments, no growth. How does Hornby develop his particular form of arrested development — and what is he saying about contemporary masculinity?
- Marcus is the opposite of Will — a serious, socially inept child forced to act as adult by his mother's illness. How does Hornby develop this contrast — and what does each character teach the other?
- Will's relationship with Marcus forces him to become present in someone else's life. How does Hornby show this transformation — and does it feel emotionally credible rather than schematic?
- The novel is set in 1993 — Nirvana, grunge, the last moment before mobile phones. How does this period setting serve the story — and what does it say about Will's relationship to culture as identity?
- About a Boy is funnier than High Fidelity and arguably more structurally accomplished. How does Hornby develop as a novelist between the two books?
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