About A Boy by Nick Hornby

I picked up this book not knowing what to expect. I loved "High Fidelity", both the book and the movie, and the other book by Hornby that I had read was decent. This book, while set up fairly differently from "High Fidelity", has similar plot threads. The main characters in each book are similar, but their foils are different. "High Fidelity"'s Rob Gordon is a neurotic, bored record store clerk who spends his days looking for women. The main character in "About A Boy", Will, is a lazy, bored man who spends his days listening to music and looking for women. Aside from a time period difference (Rob listens to the Clash and Marvin Gaye, Will to Nirvana), and Will having inherited a large sum of money, the men are carbon copies. The initial premise of the book is that Will invents a fictitious two year old, Ned, in order to be able to join a single parents group. However, the book quickly becomes more than that once Will meets Marcus, an eccentric twelve year old. Marcus is a loner at school, and he latches onto Will as a possible friend. I have not reached farther in the book, but it seems intriguing to say the least.