Boekverslag Nick Hornby

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Titels van Nick Hornby

• A long way down (1)

  2005

• About a boy (21)

  1998

• High fidelity (3)

  2000

• How to be good (1)

  2001

1. General information

Nick Hornby
About a boy
Love and thanks to David Evans,
Adrienne Maguire, Caroline Dawnay,
Virginia Bovell, Abigail Morris,
Wendy Carlton, Harry Ritchie and
Amanda Posey. Music provided by
Wood in Upper Street, London N1.
In memory of Liz Knights
Penguin Books
London
Copyright 1998
Publication 2000
278 pages

2. Your first impression

Before reading
When I heard we had to read a book for our English book report, I went to the media room to get a book. I firstly picked a book of Roald Dahl, because I heard some good stories about it, but when I started reading it, I found out that it contained all kind of small stories. This book was not perfect for my report, so I decided to pick another book. This book caught my eye, because the cover looked nice, and it said they made a film of this book, which means that it should be good, else they would not have made a film of it.
On the back of the book it says that it’s about a boy of twelve years old, who thinks like a grownup, and an adult, who acts quite childish. I thought it would be very humorist, and that the boy would help the adult.

After reading
When I finished this book, I felt quite weird: it isn’t just a simple love story, but more like soap series. Unfortunately it ended just right, just how it started. The book wasn’t really funny either. Generally the book just wasn’t very good.

3. Contents & technique

Summary
The book is mainly about Will, who is a single “no-liver”. He doesn’t have to work because his father once wrote a Christmas song, with which he earns a thousand dollars per minute. He is very lonely and wants to get a serious relationship. The best place to go for single women, who want a single relationship, is a place where divorced people go. Will finds out about a SPAT party (Single Parents – Alone Together), and he decides to go.
There he meets Suzie, and because he’s on a party for single parents, he makes up that he has a kid called Ned. Will likes Suzie, so they decide to go for a walk in the park the next day. Suzie takes the child of a friend, Fiona, with them. The kid, called Marcus, is twelve years old and bright.
When Will and Suzie were talking, Marcus was suddenly in front of them. He says: “I think I killed a duck with my sandwich”. Marcus was throwing bread at the ducks, like every other kid. They were afraid the park keeper would see it, so they went home.
They first went to see off Marcus, but when they got in the apartment, they saw Fiona lying on the ground, out of consciousness with an empty bottle of pills next to her. So she tried to commit suicide. They took Fiona to the hospital to get her stomach pumped empty. Marcus stayed with Suzie.
Suzie thought that Marcus was too small to understand people wanted to kill themselves, but Marcus did understand. He felt really sorry that his mum wasn’t feeling very well, and to help her, he tried to make Will go out with her.
Will didn’t like Fiona as much as he liked Suzie, but he became quite good friends with Marcus himself.
Marcus wasn’t popular at his school. He wore the wrong shoes, and said the wrong things and listened to the wrong music. Sometimes the big boys came after him after school, and Marcus would go to Will. Will once bought “good” and fashionable trainers for Marcus, but the next day Marcus came crying to Will to tell his new and expensive shoes have been stolen.
In the meanwhile, Marcus had a crush on a girl who was three years older. Her name was Ellie, and she was a rebellious girl who wore always instead of the normal costume a Nirvana sweater. Will helped Marcus with Ellie, and Marcus played Will’s son, for his new love: Rachel. Will wanted a son to look interesting, and Marcus helped him out. Unfortunately Rachel had also a son called Ali, who didn’t like to share his mum, and threatened Marcus to kill him when “his dad” and Rachel would get something.
Later, Marcus went to his real dad in Essex because he had broken his collarbone. Ellie wanted to go with him; she was drunk and was acting weird. Halfway she got of the train and Marcus went with her. When Ellie heard that the singer of Nirvana killed himself, she went mad and smashed a window. The Police caught them both, and with all the parents they had a talk. They decided that is was best to let Marcus live with Suzie, and that Will should break up with Rachel. Ellie had to go to a youth institution to learn how to behave.

Characters
The main characters are Will and Marcus. Furthermore are there also some other personalities in the book, but they are present less than half the story.
Will’s biggest concern is to find a girlfriend, because alone he is very lonely.
The biggest concern of Marcus is, to make his mother happy, and to become one of the “cool” kids, so Ellie will like him.
Will first dates with Suzie, who is a friend of the mother of Marcus. Later Marcus describes their relationship as “friends”.
Will is pretending he’s brave, but he’s not. He’s swearing a lot, even when he’s not angry, to act tougher. Some quotations from the book:
“It’s not my bloody present, it yours! Take it fool!”
“I don’t know, Jesus Christ!”
Marcus is brighter than twelve year old kids, but with his appearance, he’s more childish. Here Ellie asks him what he’d like to drink.
“So, what are you drinking?”
“Coke.”
“You’ve got to have a proper drink.”
“I’m not allowed.”
“You’re allowed by me. In fact, if you’re going o be my date for the evening, I insist that you have a proper drink. I’ll put something in the Coke, OK?”
Yes, there is some character development in Will’s character. In the beginning he is very desperate, and later, when he found his true love Rachel, he doesn’t look at every woman passing by.
I like Ellie most, because she has a rebellious nature, and I like people who are different. She knows what she stands for, and she acts out what she thinks. I like that.
I like Ali least, because he is a very spoiled kid, who can’t replace himself in his mother, and he doesn’t understand he makes his mother happier by letting her having boyfriends.

Narrative space
All the events, except for the train, take place in London. And Marcus lives, to be precisely in Flat 2, 31 Craysfield Road, Islington, London N1 2SF.

The only importance of the narrative space for the story is that they have to wear uniforms, so Ellie can be mutinous to not wear her uniform.

Time frame
The timeframe is around the late nineties, when the book is written. Some people have “already” got CD-players, others still have music tapes.
It doesn’t really matter for the story if it happened 20 years ago. Only the Nirvana band wouldn’t exist maybe…

The time progression of the story is approximately nine months. Halfway the book it says “It was 6 months ago, that Fiona… that it was dead-duck-day” and all the events happen quite quickly afterwards.

The ending is half open, and half closed because the affairs are all finished, but the people are still alive, so probably they’ll have some other things to happen in their life.

There’s only one flash forward in this book. This one is when Will is driving with Fiona, when they got called from the police station. The chapter after that, you read why they got a call of the police station, so what Ellie and Marcus did.

Point of view
“About a boy” is written from the third person narrative. A few examples:
“It was beginning to make him angry.
‘That’s not fair!’
She laughed. ‘That’s what life is, Marcus!’”

“’So do I, come to that,’ said Rachel. ‘Maybe they should meet. What’s yours called?’
He’s not mine, exactly, he thought. ‘Marcus,’ he said.”

This point of view is quite reliable: you see every character in a general way, not just from one side like the first person narrative.
The reader is not manipulated from this point of view, because it is very general.

Style
The style is very common. Not a lot of pun use, just once. The writer uses a lot of swearing; only because it’s with the character of Will, it is acceptable. The writer has a good combination of the description of the surroundings and dialogues.

Theme
The main theme of the story is “relationships”. All is about the relationships of Will, and also of Marcus and Ellie.
The author treats the theme a little too light, because if you believe him, it would be very easy to end a relationship.
The theme “relationship” is related to the title because “About a boy” has a double meaning. Namely; the boy is Marcus and Will, and the relationship between them.
I haven’t read any book, or haven’t seen any film which has to do with relationships and suicide.

Literary history
Nick Hornby
“BORN:
Redhill, Surrey, 17th April 1957

EDUCATED:
Cambridge University (English)
Highbury (Football/Facts of Life)

WORKS AND LIVES IN:
Highbury, North London

'Every English writer needs their corner that is forever England - but only a few brave men choose to make that corner Highbury. Who would have thought the square mile around Arsenal's stadium could be a suitable surrogate for the whole wide world?'
Zadie Smith, Time

PREVIOUS JOBS:
English teacher
TEFL teacher
Host for Samsung executives visiting the UK
Journalist
Pop Music Critic for the New Yorker

THE TURNING POINT:
'I started by writing plays. They were sort of screen-cum-radio-cum-TV plays, and they weren't very good … When I left university and I tried to write, everything came out sounding like bad essays, so I thought I should stick to dialogue. I hadn't done enough reading-not of the things I wanted to emulate-so it took me a while, a long while, to grapple with voice … everything changed for me when I read Anne Tyler, Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, and Lorrie Moore, all in about '86-'87 … voice, tone, simplicity, humour, soul ... all of these things seemed to be missing from the contemporary English fiction I'd looked at, and I knew then what I wanted to do'

IN THE BEGINNING:
Nick established himself as a journalist, with features published in The Sunday Times, Esquire, Elle, Vogue, GQ, Time Out, Time, the Literary Review and the Independent

CURRENT PROJECTS:
Stuff I've Been Reading: monthly column for McSweeney's Believer mag.

NICK'S FIRST
book was a collection of critical essays on American writers, entitled Contemporary American Fiction (1992)

THE BIG BOOKS
Nick's best-known books are the internationally bestselling novels High fidelity, About A Boy, How to be good and A long way down. Nick's non-fiction books include the football memoir Fever Pitch and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, a collection of Nick's essays on books and culture. His latest novel is Slam, vintage Hornby for teenagers.

THE MOVIES
Fever Pitch, High fidelity and About A Boy have all been made into successful, and much-loved, films, starring Colin Firth, John Cusak and Hugh Grant. Fever Pitch was also released as a movie in 2005 starring Drew Barrymore. The filming of A long way down is taking place, produced by Johnny Depp.

THE MUSIC
Nick is a huge pop music fan. Read the soundtrack of his life (and some of his New Yorker columns) in 31 Songs (2003)

THE CHARITY
Speaking With The Angel (2000), a story collection which Nick edited and contributed to with his own 'Nipplejesus', benefits his eldest son Danny's school Treehouse. The Treehouse Trust is a London-based charity, established in 1997 to provide an 'educational Centre of Excellence' for children with autism. It was set up by a group of parents (including Nick) whose children had recently been diagnosed with autism.

AN AVERAGE DAY:
'I have an office round the corner from my home. I arrive there between 9:30 and 10 a.m., smoke a lot, write in horrible little two-and-three sentence bursts, with five-minute breaks in between. Check for emails during each break, and get irritated if there aren't any. Go home for lunch. If I'm picking up my son I leave at 3:30. If not, I stay till six. It's all pretty grim! And so dull!' “

Source: http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/nickhornby/aboutnick/index.html

Nick Hornby is a good and important author in English literature I think, when I look at his prices.

THE PRIZES
1992: Fever Pitch won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award

1999: Nick was awarded the E M Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

2001: How to be good was longlisted for the Booker Prize and was named the UK's favourite work of fiction at the WH Smith Book Awards (the only major UK book prize to be voted for by the public)

2002: 31 Songs was shortlisted for the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award in the USA

2003: Fellow authors, including Germaine Greer, Zadie Smith and Doris Lessing honoured Nick with the Writers' Writer Award at the Orange Word International Writers Festival.

2005: A long way down was shortlisted for the 2005 Whitbread Novel Award.

2006: A long way down was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

The book is typical for the author’s oeuvre I think. Someone wrote as a bookreview the following line: “Hornby has a gift for taking on big existential themes like despair and suicide and presenting them with a gentle but incisive humor that doesn't trivialize them.”
So this isn’t the first time he writes about suicide.

4. Reading experience
While I was reading this book, I didn’t feel to read ahead. It was the fact I had to make a report about it, but else I would have putted it down.
I like the part where Ellie was freaking out most. I really liked it when she smashed that window, and the reason why she did it. It’s interesting to read about why such a people would do such a “stupid” thing.
I didn’t like the part in the beginning, where all the people needed to be introduced. It was boring to read, and hard to understand.
Perhaps I’m going to read another book of Nick Hornby, but that’ll be coincidental probably. I didn’t really like his way of writing.
I do not advise others to read this book, because there are loads of books about this subject, and those are probably better written, so please read those!

Sources

http://www.amazon.com/About-Boy-Movie-Tie/dp/1573229571
http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/nickhornby/aboutnick/index.html
http://www.marymartinbooks.com.au/newsimages/About%20A%20Boy(2).jpg
http://www.about-a-boy.com/desktops/bench_1280.jpg