Slam is a novel written by British author Nick Hornby. The novel published in 2007.
Slam is a story about sixteen years old boy called Sam. He lives with his single mother Annie in England. Skateboarding is Sam’s passion and Tom Hawk(familiarly called TH) is his huge idol. Sam has for example a TH’s poster on his wall. Sometimes Sam chats to TH’s poster and asks for help to different problems in his life. One day Sam meets a girl called Alicia, who is Sam’s mother’s co-worker’s daughter. Pair starts to date quite quickly. Everything seems to be allright until little accident happens with his girlfriend Alicia. You see, Alicia gets pregnant.
I think all characters in this book were felicitous. Main character Sam was easy-going and nice guy. He wasn’t rebel-teenager at all. Sam reminded even a nerd or loser little bit. He talked to the poster, which was pretty weird… However I liked Sam a lot. The book was written from his point of view so novel described Sam’s feelings about teenpregnancy and being father. I think Sam was real.
Other characters in book were also good. Sam’s mother Annie was as easy-going as her son. Their relationship was workable. They didn’t fight. Annie became a mother at a young age too so she understood his son’s situation.
Alicia was only person in the book, who I didn’t like at first. I think she was little spoiled and childish. Her parents were educated and old-fashioned and Alicia seemed shallow. Towards the end of book, Alicia became more responsible and she matured. From the beginning I wondered the relationship between Alicia and Sam. Alicia was described pretty and popular girl that everyone was in love with. Sam was instead little weird. I marveled why they started to date.
The main theme of the book is teenpregnancy. Book is also growth story of young man. Slam told about how hard experience teenpregnancy is and how much baby can change life. It described Sam’s feelings: he thought that he had no future. Sam experienced a lot of different feelings in book, so it was touching. For my surprise Slam was also very funny. I recommend to read this book no matter what age you are.
I had heard Nick Hornby’s book ”About a boy” and seen movie of the same name. The movie was good so I looked forward reading about Slam. And I liked Nick Hornby’s way to write. Language was simple and funny. Chapters were short enough. I liked also whole plot except few parts. These parts told about future and what Sam expects his life to be then. Otherwise plot moved ahead logically. Slam was really easy-reading book. I am not experienced reader but I understood every single word. I recommend this book for everyone.
Lähteet: Wikipedia