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Writers choose different forms to convey what they want to say. They may decide to write a play, poetry or a novel. About a Boy is written in the form of a novel, which is a fictional prose narrative:

• fictional – something imagined or untrue
• prose – writing that is not in verse
• narrative – a written account of something

Therefore, About a Boy is an imagined written account that is not in verse.

Generally, a novel will be built around characters and action, and will be recognisable in its realism – that is, showing things as they really are.

Novels can be separated into many different categories, or genres, such as romance, war, revenge, crime, thriller, fantasy and so on. About a Boy is a Bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age story, which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the main characters from youth to adulthood.

The Bildungsroman

The Bildungsroman originated in Germany, with the publication of a book by Goethe called Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship in 1795. This novel became very influential across Europe and was translated into English in 1824. From that point, many British writers were inspired to write novels which traced the coming-of-age of the main character.

About a Boy is a coming-of-age novel because the two main characters, Will and Marcus, both achieve an appropriate level of maturity and are accepted by society. Hornby subverts the genre by not only looking at the coming-of-age of Will, a 36-year-old who behaves more like a child at the start of the book, and who has to learn how to be an adult, but also of Marcus, who is 12 years old in the novel but behaves more like an adult at the start of the book, and who has to learn how to be a child. Marcus’ mother, Fiona, also has to learn to deal with her depression and understand that it is something that will not go away. She needs to manage it in order to be a proper mother to Marcus.

What is the effect of this?

Nick Hornby wrote About a Boy primarily to entertain, because it is a very funny book. However, as he suffers from depression himself, he shows how Fiona manages to accept her illness. He does this in a sensitive way, showing how it affects other people as well as the sufferer. Hornby also has a personal interest in autism, and he portrays Marcus as being on the autistic spectrum, because he finds it difficult to read other people.

Marcus is deeply affected and frightened by his mother’s depression and it is part of his development to learn to trust other people to help him. He worries about his mother so much that he is unable to be a normal child. By contrast, Will is presented as a boy in a man’s body who has never grown up; he is rich and spoilt and has never needed to find work or take any responsibility for himself or anyone else.

Both Marcus and Will are outsiders at the start. Marcus is bullied by boys of his own age because he seems different, and Will separates himself from other people of his age who are settling down and having families, because he is afraid of commitment. The two characters go on an emotional journey throughout the novel until they both find happiness and acceptance by their peers at the end.

How to analyse form in About a Boy

• Remember that it is a coming-of-age novel and therefore tracks the psychological and moral growth of the main characters until they are accepted by society.
• Understand that Will is an adult who is afraid of commitment and who has never really grown up. He needs to allow himself to become emotionally involved with other people, and take responsibility for himself and others until he finds maturity.
• Understand that Marcus is a child who has too much responsibility at the start of the novel. With the help and support of other people he gradually learns to feel that he does not need to be in control of everything. He eventually becomes a normal boy of his age.