Arbeitsblatt: About A boy

„About Boy(Summer Reading Assignment) About Boy is novel written by Nick Hornby in 1998. It is settled in London and tells the story of very different people becoming friends. The main character of About Boy is 12 years old boy called Marcus. Marcus has just moved to London with his mother, because his parents got divorced. Marcus is not like other children at his age, he listens to Mozart, wears old clothes and he doesnt care about his haircut. His mother Fiona is music therapist, but she doesnt work at the moment, because she is very depressive and cries all the time without visible reason, which bothers Marcus very much. In his new school Marcus has big problems as well. He doesnt find friends and people laugh at him, because of his haircut, his shoes and his clothes. Marcus is very unhappy boy. He tries to tell his mother about his problems, but she doesnt really help him and gets even more depressed, so Marcus has to deal with his problems on his own. Another very important character of the book is Will. He is 36 years old, has no profession and has never worked in his life. His father wrote the song Santas Super Sleigh which is very well sold, so that Will can live of its royalties. Will never stays long with the same woman. There always comes time, when woman gets on his nerves and he just wants to run away. Will decides to look for an attractive single mother, even though he hates children. He joins to group called SPAT where single mothers meet. There, he is introduced to Suzie. Will is very interested in her and pretends to have son called Ned. When Fiona has another very bad day she sends Marcus to her best friend Suzie. Theyre making picnic in the park, to which Will is invited, too. There, Will and Marcus come to know each other. Marcus throws very big bread for the ducks in the lake, strikes duck and kills it. When Marcus is driven home after the picnic, they find Fiona lying on the sofa after having tried to kill herself. From that time on Marcus is even more unhappy and is always afraid of coming home from school and finding his mother dead. Marcus hopes that boyfriend would cheer his mother up, so he wants to pair Will with his mother and arranges meeting for the three of them, but they soon realize that it wouldnt work. After another horrible day at school Marcus doesnt want to go home to his mother, so he goes to Will. At the beginning Will doesnt want to let him in, but soon these meetings come regular. Will sees that Marcus is very worried about his mother and that he cant fit in society, so he introduces him to the music most kids listen to, the Vanessa Cakir TG 7 clothes and the hair style, they become good friends and Will sort of takes the role of father for Marcus. One day, Marcus meets Ellie 15 years old girl, who is very tough, gets always in trouble in school and listens to Nirvana. Even though they are very different they become good friends, because Ellie has problems with her mother, too, and is excluded from society just like Marcus. They go to Cambridge together to take Marcus father Clive to task, because he left him alone and wasnt good father. Meanwhile, Will starts going out with single mother called Rachel, who has 12 years old boy called Ali. Will lies again and says Marcus is his son. Even though they had problems in the beginning Marcus and Ali become good friends. At the beginning of the book Marcus appears to be an old man, because he was so worried at his young age, that he could never be child. Will on the contrary is like child, that cant take responsibility and always runs away from difficulties. At the end of the book Marcus is transformed into normal child for his age, Will comes up more mature and ends up wanting to marry Rachel. My opinion: liked reading this book very much. Its very funny and sad at the same time. It shows very well how society puts us under pressure. think the fact that so different people become friends shows us that we arent actually so different and also think that Hornby wants to say that we shouldnt evaluate people only from their appearance, but also from their inner worth. Words: 782 Vanessa Cakir TG 7 Vanessa Cakir TG 7