Hornby, Nick. (2007). Slam. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. ISBN: 978-0-399-25048. p. 309
Genre: Fiction
Interest Age: 14+
Curriculum: NA
Reader’s Annotation
Sam’s life was going pretty good: he skated, idolized Tony Hawk, got decent grades, had a good relationship with his mom and had a beautiful new girl in his life. But a momentary lapse in judgment with his girlfriend and his life will be changed forever.
Plot Summary
Sam is an average teen living in England with his single mother. He’s not a bad kid or a trouble maker. Even though his mom had him when she was only 16 years old, the rough times are behind them and Sam’s doing pretty well in life. He loves to skate (that’s skateboarding, not ice skating, as Sam is always quick to point out), he does alright at school and is looking forward to being the first person in his family to go to college. He even gets a beautiful new girlfriend and they quickly fall in love. Everything is perfect, until one night, in a brief moment of weakness, he has sex without protection. He soon learns he will soon be a parent at 16.
Sam and his girlfriend Alicia must now adjust to life knowing that they will soon be parents. They have to deal with angery and disappointed parents, judgmental friends and classmates, and the fact that their relationship was close to being over until this child forced them back together. Sam must learn how to take responsibility for his actions and his life. Lucky, he can always turn to his most trusted advisor in all things: Tony Hawk.
Critical Review
This is Hornby’s first Young Adult novel. Fans of his previous books such as High Fidelity, About a Boy, and A Long Way Down will be pleased to find Hornby’s sense of wit and humor are still very much present in this coming of age tale about a kid who must learn to take responsibility for his choices, the good and the bad.
Stories of teenage pregnancy abound in today’s culture. From TV shows, movies, and books, to real life headlines, there is no hiding from the fact that many teens start experimenting with sex at ages when they are ill-prepared to deal with the emotional and physical consequences. The plot of Slam is not unique: Boy meets girl. Boy and girl do something stupid. Girl gets pregnant. Boy freaks out.
Hornby does a solid job hitting all of the pertinent issues: parent relationships, responsibility, fear, parenthood, etc. What sets this story apart from the myriad of other teen pregnancy stories is Hornby’s wit and ability to dissect the inner workings of the male mind, in this case, the teenage male mind. Sam’s inner though processes is hilarious, touching, frightening and it always feels authentic. Hornby shows teens for what they are: Erratic and contradictory. One moment Sam is taking responsibility, the next he’s running away; he often knows the right thing to do or say, but then says or does just the opposite. At certain points you want to commend and support Sam for trying to do the right thing; at other times you want to smack him for being such an idiot.
Hornby controls the story and never lets it fall into the realm of melodrama. The characters grow and learn how to become the people they need to be and although the ending could be considered “happy”, Hornby is never one to give the reader a “storybook” ending. In fact, an important point is made that in this type of story, there is no real ending. Life continues and so do the challenges. In life, much like in skating, if you lose your concentration or focus for a moment, there can be disastrous consequences. Ultimately, Slam is not so much about how to avoid “eating concrete”, as it is about picking yourself up, brushing yourself off, and doing what you have to do; Being who you have to be.
Author Info
Hornby grew up in a working class town, west of London. He first arrived on the literary scene in 1992 with his autobiographical book Fever Pitch, where he chronicles his long devotion to the Arsenal football club. With the publication of High Fidelity (1995) and About a Boy (1998), Hornby became the face of what was labeled “lad lit” (a counter point to “chick lit”) which focused emotional stunted male leads coping with fears of intimacy, monogamy, relationships, and adulthood. He has often been criticized for writing for an audience who normally doesn’t read and for “devaluing literacy culture”. (Sullivan, 2010)
Hornby went on to write How to be Good (2001), Songbook (2002), A Long Way Down (2005), as well as several short stories. His novels Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, and About a Boy have all been adapted into films. In 2009 he wrote the screenplay for the film An Education, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Sullivan, Paul. "Nick Hornby." British Writers. Ed. Jay Parini.: Supplement 15. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 May 2010.
Book Talking Ideas
1. Why does Sam talk to his Tony Hawk poster? How does this help him?
2. Why does Sam choose the have sex with Alicia, even after he decided not to?
3. How did Sam react to Alicia’s pregnancy? How did their parents react?
4. How did the pregnancy change Sam’s life? How did it change Alicia’s life? Were they affected in the same way?
Challenges
I did not find any challenges but the novel does deal with teenage sex and pregnancy. There is also some explicit language and profanity.
Why I choose this title
I’m a big fan of Hornby’s writing and loved the idea that he was tackling an issue like teen pregnancy in a Young Adult novel. His reading is very accessible even to those who normally wouldn’t read a book about teen pregnancy.
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