Marcus

nappies. However he does discover that single mothers are keen to find boyfriends. So he pretends to have a son and joins a club for single parents which organises events at which he hopes to meet women who will gladly fall into his arms.

It's at one of these events that he meets Marcus and a friendship develops. Will helps Marcus to fit into the modern world (well the world of 1993 in which the book is set, anyway). He takes him shopping and buys him Adidas trainers (which are promptly stolen by bullies on his way home from school) and he introduces him to the music of Nirvana.

As the story progresses Marcus and Will develop many more friendships. Marcus is adopted by Ellie, a very tough fifteen year old girl who is constantly in trouble at school because she insists on wearing a Kurt Cobain T-shirt. He also spends some time with his dad who comes to Marcus' mum's flat for Christmas together with his new girlfriend and her mother. Meanwhile Will starts going out with a single mum who has a son about the same age as Marcus. Together they also spend time with various other single parents. The story is full of encounters, friendships and relationships, but not one of them is a united family with two parents.

At the end of the book Marcus is described as someone who has grown up and learned what he believes are important lessons about life. 'I feel safer than before' he says '... because I know more people ... it's like those acrobatic displays ... when you stand on top of loads of people in a pyramid. It doesn't really matter who they are, as long as they're there and you don't let them go away without finding someone else ... You can't stand on top of your mum and dad if they're going to mess around and wander off and get depressed.

Analysis

Will is very lazy and he does nothing all day. He does get money, from his father. His father ones made a Christmas song and so he earns money. Because he is so lazy and he hasn’t achieved anything, being cool is an achievement to him. He hasn’t done anything more special in his life.

Marcus is a weird kid. He is being bullied at school because he doesn’t have the right haircut and the right cloths. He likes other artist than the new rap artist. Also, he isn’t allowed to do the same things as the other children in his spare time. This is because of his mother. Fiona is a depressed woman. She is weird and a hippy. On the ‘Dead Duck Day’

sees every man as an island.

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