Nick Hornby, after the great success of High Fidelity, had published another novel about the hard work necessary to became a man, and the relaxing alternative to remain a boy and, on the opposite side, the hard work necessary to be recognized as a boy, when the world sees you always as a kid.

The character that makes the choice to remain a boy is Will Freeman (symbolic both the surname than the name), like very few people he has the privilege to live without the need to work and to earn money. His main problem is therefore to fill of contents his long days. Of course, the more interesting content is represented by the women.

The kid that tries hardly to be accepted as a boy  is the 12-years-old Marcus, unique son of a typical liberal-hippy woman, his mother Fiona. They are both "odd" in comparison to the external world, a choice for Fiona, a problem for Marcus

The starting event for the novel is the brilliant idea of Will to extend his list of women to conquer: to register himself as a divorced father abandoned by her wife, and to participate to an association of alone parents. Of course, they are mainly women (also in UK) and he can benefit of their solidarity and help.

The relationship between Will and Marcus starts during the events organized by this association. Will becomes, reluctantly, the older brother, the father, the friend and more than all, the scout for Marcus in his difficult travel towards the adult life. How to dress, the music to listen to, the myths to know by a cool boy in this era.

Will is an indifferent, reluctant teacher, but Marcus is a good scholar, every lesson is taken and applied literally, with an effective comic result, and this peculiar book can be considered one of the most interesting of this period. Obviously, as the previous one, a film  based on it was very soon prepared, the directed by the Reisz brother (American Pie) and a key role for the British star Hugh Grant (a character almost perfect for him).

As in other novels written by Hornby the action is supported by a sort of soundtrack, like in a movie. The choice of music and songs is adapted to the different characters and gives a neat image of the nineties. One more time, the music fan Hornby utilizes his knowledge with extremely focused and not banal choices.

(1) Self citation by Hornby: it's the name of the record shop, theater of the previous novel High Fidelity