Book Review: About a Boy (without spoilers)

I really wasn’t sure about this one when I first started reading it. I thought Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked was fantastically engaging in a comfy sort of sinking-into-an-overstuffed-easy-chair kind of way. This was the only other Hornby the library had, and though I hadn’t seen the movie, I knew it was fairly well-received. So I grabbed it.

I then spent the first half of the book trying to figure out what it was about. (Yes, I’m thick.) Was it trying to be a romance? Offer a perspective on depression and parenthood? Could the leading man really be that much of a wanker all way through the novel?

Honestly, I almost stopped reading it. It wasn’t that bad, but the story was disappointing after Juliet and while I know many readers who enjoy the challenge of actively disliking a main character, I am not one of them. But then it happened: I felt Hornby kick into gear and I could feel the story’s hooks slide into me. The boy (who the story is really about, funnily enough) developed a little bit. He went from mildly cute, but unchanging, to grabbing a little character development. He started making things happen and all of a sudden there was plot and psychological analysis to be had and I was happy.

I will say that the story is still a bit of what I would call a comfy read. About a Boy isn’t quite literary, but it’s not exactly not-literary, either. But I think it works extraordinarily well for Hornby; I’m certainly picking up another – any other – of his books the next chance I have.

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Tags: book review, literature, reading