Analysis: 'About A Boy'

BOOKTEST 5V1 Mijke tonnon
1. A) “About a boy”
B) Nick Hornby
C) 1998

2. A) The story takes place in 1994/1995. Because in the story they celebrate New year´s eve. They think back of 1994, about what kind of year it was, and they hope 1995 will be better.
B) The story takes place in London, the boy describes that he moved from Cambridge to London, and that London is very different from Cambridge.

3. Marcus: Marcus is a twelve year old boy, his father is called Clive and his mother Fiona. His parents have split up. At the start of the book he isn’t really a teenager. He wears weird clothes, he listens to music his mother likes and doesn’t know anything about a normal teenage life. So in school he doesn’t have any friends. But then he meets
A) Introduction: Marcus moved to London with his mother Fiona. In his new school he doesn’t have any friends, because he’s different from the others and he wears weird clothes. Fiona is not really a happy person, she broke up with her new boyfriend Roger and she has to look after Marcus on her own. Will joins the SPAT club, to meet women, and lies about having a son to get attention from women.
B) Initial Incident: Suzie is a Fiona’s friend and takes Marcus with her to a SPAT meeting. Will is also there. Marcus accidentally kills a duck at the picnic. When Suzie takes Marcus back home, Will is still with them. At home they find Fiona lying in the living room, she is unconscious. They’re all in shock. They bring Fiona to the hospital and they find out she had tried to kill herself with an overdose of pills, but luckily it failed. Fiona is depressive, and Marcus is not enough to cheer her
That same day Kurt Cobain killed himself and it was in all the newspapers. Ellie jumps of the train, because she is very sad about the news. Marcus goes with her. In a store Ellie sees a cardboard Kurt Cobain and she gets mad, because people are trying to get money out of his death. She throws her shoe at the window and it breaks.
E) Down-going action: They arrive at the police station, and the police calls their parents. At first Clive and his girlfriend Lindsay arrive, they’re really mad. Fiona, Will and Katrina (Ellie’s mother) drive to the police station together. Ellie apologizes to the store owner, and they can go. Will thinks about how weird it is that one little boy can bring all these people together.
F) Conclusion: Fiona is better than usual, because Marcus became more on his own. Will is with Rachel and takes Marcus and Ali (Rachel’s son) to the cinema or a museum very often. Will has become more mature, because of Marcus and Rachel. Marcus started to act like a teenager more and more, which was also a good thing. So Marcus and Will helped each other out, and it led to a happy