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Slam

Author: Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

12 reviews
Sales Rank: 875

Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.9

ISBN: 0141321407
EAN: 9780141321400
ASIN: 0141321407

Publication Date: April 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new. Dispatched from UK stock by reputable retailer in 1 working day

Also Available In:

•	Audio CD - Slam
•	Audio CD - Slam
•	Paperback - Slam
•	Hardcover - Slam

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Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Readable but overall a "miss" July 25, 2008
This book is something slightly different from Nick Hornby, whose books I have enjoyed (particularly "About a Boy" and "High Fidelity"). Typically, I think his target audience is the 30-somethings, although "About a Boy" also featured a teenage boy as a main character so this isn't quite so much of a departure as some may say.
As a 30-something (just), this book did not hit the mark. I understand that the author wanted to take us into a slightly different world, and one that is real for many people, but it is not a world that I relate to, and the main character is not one with whom I could empathise. I think the portrayal of this rather thoughtless teenager was realistic, but not an attractive read (although as ever his easy style made the book quite readable).
I also did not like the "time travel" gimmick. It disrupted the storyline, and was a total nonsense. The author was trying to show how much the boy's life changed and how bewildering and disruptive these changes are in his life, but I think this message was clear enough without this trick.
Three stars - perhaps slightly generous - because it was still quite readable, but I won't rush to read it again.

2 out of 5 stars

not for adults July 24, 2008
Time to own up- when I bought Nick Hornby's new novel, I was not aware that it was aimed at `young adults'. And to be fair, it is only right that anyone considering a purchase realises that you are not getting the usual Hornby. I am a longtime fan right back to Fever Pitch, but this novel is simplistic to say the least, its language leaden, and I am too far away from my teenage years to relate to the youthful narrator.

Slam concerns itself with a fateful period of a teenage boy's life around his sixteenth birthday, as narrated when he is 18. And- er- that's about it, without giving too much away. The title refers to Sam's love of skating- that's skateboarding to you and me, as is painfully pointed out early on- and his awe of the champion skater Tony Hawk helps to drive the story. I did enjoy the device of relating events in Hawk's autobiography to Sam's own life.

Hornby does introduce one neat trick to lend some spark to a pretty thin story, but fails to develop it enough to make it interesting. I guess the incomplete story serves to show us that real life is messy with no neat and tidy endings- but I found the book very unsatisfying and a long way indeed from the brilliant High Fidelity.

2 out of 5 stars

What was that all about? July 3, 2008
I've just finished Slam and wonder why I bothered. This book jumps about from one thing to another and never really lets you know what it is supposed to be doing. I thought it was about a skater; he skates probably three times in the whole thing. I thought he spoke to Tony Hawk; he does this too infrequently for what I thought was the main focus of the book. Then he gets a girlfriend pregnant and then he starts time travelling would you believe? Then he moves to Hastings and we are introduced to a whole new range of characters who stary the course for about a minute - this after we have been introduced to his friends in some detail who occupy less than nothing in the story.
I'm going to get a glass of warm milk and have lie down. Maybe I can forget spending my precious reading time on this debacle.

2 out of 5 stars

Nick Hornby could write this in his sleep. And it seems that he did June 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I expected more from Nick Hornby in his first YA book. The subject of teen pregnancy has been done to death but there isn't a great deal out there that looks at it from the father-to-be's angle and it's something that ties in with Hornby's perennial theme of men (read: teenage boys) finally being forced to take responsibility and display maturity. A writer of Hornby's talent could write a book about that in his sleep and it seems that he did.

Sam has a stereotypical background (raised by a single mother who had him whilst herself a teenager and emotionally distant from his father). The central character device of having him talk to a Tony Hawk poster reminded me of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM but Hornby has researched skater terminology and slang and Sam's relationship with his friends is entertaining.

However the book suffers because Hornby wants Sam to be a bit of everything. He's inarticulate about his own feelings but is perceptive as to the emotions of those around him and explains them. It's a tension that does not come off. Hornby makes a lot of Sam's wanting to be a good dad, but it comes too late in the text for it to have the emotional impact it needs.

I didn't believe in his relationship with the middle-class Alicia as it's unclear what she saw in him other than that he was there and a way of getting at her snobby parents. Alicia is two-dimensional (all we learn is that she wants to be a model and is a little arrogant) and it's disappointing that Hornby avoids any discussion of her aborting the baby as this could have led to some interesting emotional development on both her and Sam's part.

Hornby's time-travel device is a problem. He hedges on whether it is actually happening, which makes it difficult to suspend disbelief in these scenes. Although he uses them to move the story forward, the fact that we later have Sam reliving them (albeit slightly differently) makes them too repetitive.

The book's events feel cliched. Sam runs the checklist of fleeing his problems, reluctantly confronting them and having everything turn out all right in the end and it's dull reading. Hornby throws in some funny lines and scenes but it's not enough to salvage a blah novel that fails to innovate on the subject matter.

2 out of 5 stars

Cliche teen lit June 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Last time I read one of Hornby's books, I was in my twenties and the main characters were in their thirties. I have fond memories of reading these books. They spoke to me.

Now I'm in my thirties and the main character in this book is a teenager and I'm just not interested at all. Reading this is like being reminided that I'm old.

This book should be filed under teen fiction as teens are the true target demographic for it. Certainly all the things I found cliche - and there were a lot - might at least seem new to them.