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Suprisingly compelling read, but time travel?

Customer Rating:
This was certainly a different read for me -- though I love YA, I don't usually pick up books with male narrators. 'Slam' was good, though. Centering around teenager Sam as he struggles to grow up and avoid the mistakes of his parents, the narrator finds himself falling deeper and deeper into ensnarement with girlfriend Alicia. When Alicia reveals she's pregnant, Sam must figure out what kind of man he's going to be -- and whether or not he'll let down his mother, Alicia's family and his future child. Very tough choices for a fifteen-year-old to make.

The only thing that really hurt the book for me, as other readers have mentioned, was the "time travel" bit with Tony Hawk. I don't really know that I understood why it was happening . . .? Although his imagined conversations with Hawk did add another dimension to the novel and helped Sam sort out many confusing issues in his mind, it sort of skirted the novel into a fantasy realm that I felt didn't really work.

Still a decent read overall, though!

Another YA

Customer Rating:
Ever since Luke and Matthew, and in spite of the Pill and Roe v Wade, the unexpected premarital pregnancy has provided a theme for storytelling. Sam, the 16 year old impregnator in this, is himself the offspring of a teenage mother and there are some other twists to the narrative. It's set in suburban London and Sam is skateboarding enthusiast. He is the first person narrator. One of Hornby's gifts is his ability to tell a story in the authentic- sounding voice of a kid what never went to college or nothing. In this case it fails to set it completely apart from all the other Young Adult novels in the "Catcher in the Rye" tradition so that it is not as brilliantly original as the other Hornbys. If I wasn't already a Hornby fan I would have browsed it and put it down as just another worthy YA, but it's well worth reading.

Foray into Young Adult

Customer Rating:
I think the main reason people have mixed feelings toward this book is because the book is Nick Hornby's first young adult novel and his fans, for the most part, are not young adults. This does not mean that fans shouldn't read the novel. This doesn't mean Hornby didn't do a splendid job. But if you're reviewing the book, you have to look at it as it is.

Hornby does it again. A believable character emerges in between the covers. We come to know a short segment of a persons life. We come to enjoy a story. We come to feel for him. And we're left with some new insight. We've taken the walk in the other person's shoes. And maybe we're wiser for it.

It's well known Hornby makes pop-culture references. A Hornby book without them would be like a movie theatre without pop-corn. I do not think this particular book makes more references than any of his past books. Some people are claiming his books have become nothing more than a head-nod to everything that is pop. I think these people are forgetting the idea here. The book uses Tony Hawk as an ominous character, not a reference.

Sure it might sound young. Sure it might not be for you. You are welcome to believe what you will, but for me I think the book was perfectly Hornby.

Women - This is your guide to how men think

Customer Rating:
I was trying to think of how to review this book and I thought of two ways. One is the simple, plot based review:

Some dude gets his girlfriend pregnant and he learns life is like skating, one slip-up and your whole life can change for the worse.

The problem with Hornby is that Hornby doesn't write for the plot. Sure, he usually has clever plot hooks, a single guy goes to single parent support group meetings to hit on women with a higher chance of being loose anywhere except a brothel but ends up unexpectedly bonding with a woman's kid, but the plot isn't what makes Hornby worth reading. Hornby is worth reading due to his execution - his ability to craft everymen male leads and tell their tales with a lot of wit. In Slam, the wit is missing but the male character is much stronger, much more relatable.

I honestly feel like Sam, the male lead, is a character every guy can look at and say, "Yeah, that's pretty much the stuff I think and feel." I feel like this is a book women should read so they can get an inside look at how men actually think and feel and why we do or say the stuff we do.

This is the first book Hornby has written where I felt like the characters were living, breathing people. I think Slam has his best developed female characters. Looking back on his earlier work, that isn't saying much, but this time he really nailed the women.

The other thing about this book is Hornby is finally getting a grasp on how to end his books. With About a Boy and High Fidelity, it was clear he had no idea how to end so he had everything work out phenomenally well like a bad sitcom. In A Long Way Down, Hornby was finally moving away from the sitcom ending to the open-ended ending, but he still was grasping for a resolution. With Slam, Hornby has finally let a book end with confidence. The Q&A at the end was a cute way of saying, "I'm out of stuff to say. For further adventures of the future of Roof, write your own!"

Overall, an excellent book I'll be recommending to every woman I know!

a masterpiece that captures the voice of adolescence

Customer Rating:
Sam is sixteen years old and is about to become a dad. What follows is Sam telling his story, from falling in and out of teenage love with Alicia, to attempting to run away from home, to facing his responsibilities, dealing with Alicia's snobby parents and his mother (who had him when she was sixteen), confiding in his poster of Tony Hawk (who sends him into the future), and eventually becoming a dad to his son, Roof. Hornby masterfully tells the story with the true voice and feeling of a sixteen-year-old boy (I've never read a book that so closely captures the voice of an adolescent), a child suddenly stuck with the horrible responsibility of being a parent and how he eventually comes to deal with it and survive. Typical of Hornby, this is a deeply realistic story of true characters and real, complicated situations. But it is that voice that tells this story that makes this a masterpiece. Grade: A+