The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 17 February 2009
by Nick Hornby
The thing about our popular culture is that it appears to be driven by the desires of teenaged boys. So much so that supposedly mature, perfectly grown-up men, are yet driven by the wants of teenaged boys. Sexy yet infantalized women, televised sports, cars, beer, it's all perfectly predictable. The fantasy, though, is appealing enough. Freedom from responsibility, commitments, obligations, relationships. It all sounds pretty nice. But is it life? It is easy enough to resent being told we have to grow up and accept responsibility. Why should we? If we are free to make our choices, why shouldn't we choose to be irresponsible? Why is a more committed life somehow superior? Why can't we just remain little boys, with our toys, playing by ourselves? These are questions that come up when reading Hornby's excellent and heartfelt novel. Will Freeman (Man with Free Will) is just such a guy. Thirty-eight years old and independently wealthy, he lives a life of quiet freedom, coming and going as he pleases, shallow little relationships, lots of television and music, a nice car. When he comes to decide that single mothers represent a vast untapped reservoir of available women easy to dump when necessary, he invents a son, Ned, a two-year-old toddler and goes to a single-parenting support group. This works out well enough. The shifting narrative, though, is also focused on Marcus, a twelve-year-old boy with a depressed hippie mother, and who suffers stinging brutality at school for his outsider status. Through a series of subtly shifting events, Marcus and Will are thrown together. Will is resistant to Marcus's obvious doe-eyed need for a grown man to look after him, but cannot be completely blind to the boy's pathetic situation. He helps in small ways that feed Marcus's need to supplement his dwindling family and ease his fears of loneliness. Will is drawn in. He finds himself forced to act with growing responsibility, but he finds also the rewards of responsibility and involvement. There is much else going on in the book, and it is written with Hornby's trademark warmth and terrific wit. Hornby is in touch with the life of a boy on the brink of his teenaged years. He writes Marcus very well. Will is a little less formed, though he is meant to be, after all. And the life of school days and single dating in contemporary London is colorful and lively. Hornby integrates popular culture in often subtle but just as often hilarious ways, from the death of Kurt Cobain to television game shows. The book is entertaining and has a heart. Recommended.
Hornby has a knack for writing filmable stories. This one came out as a movie by the same name in 2002.
Also by Hornby: [High Fidelity] [How to be Good] [Just Like You]