... Marcus12, eird, suffers from theseparation of his parents, lives ith his mother Fiona, has a hard time atschool, broody person, out of touch, not coolFionaMarcus mother, hippy, believes inalternative things, tries to commit suicide, seriouslydepressiveill36, thinks hes cool, doesnt ork,had no problems before becoming Marcus friend,easygoingEllieMarcus first friend at school,alays in serious trouble ith somebody, enthusiastic fan of Kurt Cobain,quarrels ith everyone, seems veryself-confident3.ContentsChildren are more or less the lastthing, ill Freeman, 36 year old and convinced single, ants. He livescomfortably of the profits of a famous Christmas carol, his father rote in1938. So, ill has never orked in his life and recently he has found out,that single mothers are ideal for the sort of relationship he likes. To meetthese omen, he invents a little son and joins SPAT Single Parent AloneTogether, a group of single parents, mostly omen. There he gets to kno Suzie,Fionas friend. Suzie takes along Fionas telve-year-old son Marcus to a SPATpicnic, so his seriously depressive mother ould have an afternoon torelax.hen they come home in the evening,it turns out, that this idea asnt great Fiona has tried to commit suicide!ill doesnt like incidents like this he hates complications and ants to keephimself out. But he doesnt reckon ith Marcus ho suddenly knocks on his doorand ants to be let in. Rather quickly Marcus discovers, that ills son is onlyan invention. He puts the scres on ill he ouldnt give it aay, if ill entout ith Fiona. Marcus, still suffering from the separation of his parents andtormented by the fear of being alone one day, has figured out, that, if ill andhis mother ere together, the loss of one of them ouldnt be that terrible. Butafter several meetings also Marcus gives up.First, ill doesnt fancy Marcusregular visits, but he gets used to them, starts to enjoythem.By and by he finds out a lot of theproblems the boy had in his ne school, here some older pupils give him a hardtime. ell, Marcus is eird indeed. He doesnt kno any singers of the charts he prefers Joni Mitchell and Bob Marley, no footballers either, his haircutisnt right, his clothes arent modern. At least at these points ill can help,because if hes interested in anything, then in music, fashion andstyle.ithout anting to believe it, illnoticed, that he cant lock out the life ith all his problems any longer, andduring the next months not only Marcus changes...Marcus gets to kno Ellie, an oldergirl of his school, famous for alays being in trouble, usually for somethingquite bad. Ellie and ill sho him everyone on his on ay ho to be a kid.Also ill starts to act his age,ants to have a family a real, not an invented one.Fiona, Marcus mother, ants to liveagain, is surprised by the change of her son, but in a positiveay.4.InterpretationAbout a Boy is about thegroing-up of to totally different men, and about the difficulties they have.Although ill is three times older than Marcus, he sometimes seems younger especially the ay he deals ith feelings is not the ay a 36-year-old normallydoes. Despite he doesnt like children, despite he has no sense of family, he isobviously the only one hos able to understand Marcus, to help him out of hiseird orld into the orld of a normal 12-year-old boy.Everyday life and old habits arestumbling blocks, but ith a combination of desperate honesty and hunger forlife they get over everything.5.On opinionI became aare of this authorbecause of the film High Fidelity, hich is in the cinemas no. First, I alsoanted to buy High Fidelity, but then I took About a Boy it turns out tobe a good choice!Its a slice of life not everyoneslife, of course, not everybody has a father, ho rote Santas Super Sleigh,not everybody has a mother, ho suffers from existential despai ... Download