About A Boy

It is not about me.. coz I am not a boy. But it is about Nick Hornby's novel that I finished reading last night. I had started reading it a long time ago, but the slow pace in the beginning weighed me down. Fortunately, when I decided to pick it up i was in a better mood - having read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow. The rest of the book went down easily, most likely due to the humour that I found along the way.

This novel in is not the same as Tony Parson's Man and Boy, even though both tell the story of a man and a boy. One stark difference is the tenderness, and the lack of crude language in Nick's story. Okay, he did wrote the F words a few times, but overall, his book is cleaner than Tony's. One big point for Nick.

Nick managed to narrate tragedies - e.g. Marcus' mum attempted suicide - without resorting to sappiness. It is a sad story without the tears. There's just as much emotion as a 36 year old man and 12 year boy can muster. Of course, I'm stereotyping here. But the contrast that is painted can't be much clearer. Whereas Marcus was laidback, content being himself, and not understanding why people laugh at what he said, Ellie (his 15 year old female friend) is temperamental, rude, and prone to anger outbursts. The same can be said for Will (the man) and Fiona, Marcus' mum. In short, he's cool, and she's a nutter.

I can totally identify with Will's desperation in trying to speak logically with Fiona. It seems that she is incapable of speaking clearly. She kept conveying self-contradictory statements/accusations (mmmm..... macam pernah kudengar, tapi di mana ya?). And I, like Will, usually resort to not saying much at all. There's no point. Even Marcus tried to see the logic in his mother's arguement when they try to discuss an issue. The only time that he ever won an arguement was when he used the same weapon that his mother used: ill logic.

One new word that I learn from this book, and like, is MALARKEY. It's a slang for exaggerated foolish talk usually used to deceive. For example, the government, upon increasing petrol price, would say that the increase does not burden the people, the subsidy was too high, the price is still the cheapest in the region, and the other usual malarkey. Note that malarkey may make one sick as if inflicted with malaria, and that it get stale eventually i.e. not malar-segar.