Slam - Nick Hornby

Slam by Nick Hornby:A peep into teenager's mind --------------------------------------------------------------- I heard a lot about this book and finally got it from one of my friends. This was the first time I was reading any of Nick's pieces and guess what !!! I want to amend that mistake now...I loved this book.. The novel talks about Sam; a teenager who has a great penchant for skating and portrayed as a happy go luck guy.The sudden twist in the tale comes when he meets Alicia. You can swiftly get a glimpse of unprecendent accident.Yes you guessed it right.Alicia becomes pregnant. The entire story hovers around how Sam ...  Read the complete review

I always vowed to read more Nick Hornby after reading 'High Fidelity' which in my opinion is one of the best books ever written - so when my better hald produced the book 'Slam' for me to get my teeth into on a recent holiday in Egypt, I was delighted. Nick Hornby's writing style is first person, and he incorporates a lot of humour into his writing, and because of the fact he normally writes from a male perspective I can relate very well and find myself chuckling along to his words. This was the key in 'High Fidelity' and my better half has informed me that he did one from the perspective of a woman, which I am yet to read and may take me quite a while to get ...  Read the complete review

I had heard of Nick Hornby, but I couldn't remember for the life of me where and when. I was standing on Richmond station with this book which had just been thrust into my hands as I lugged my suitcase onboard. I normally always have a book to read on a journey, but this time I had left it behind for my daughter to read. My daughter's best friend had come to see me off and knowing I'm a bookworm she had bought it for me while we were waiting for my train. Just in case you think I'm waffling again, this is not my normal choice of book at all, so there had to be a reason I read it. I did actually remember that the name went with a Hugh Grant film, "About a ...  Read the complete review

The blurb of this novel lies: it suggests that the main character's passion for skating will be important in the plot. It isn't, except insofar as it gives Sam a realistic, slightly atypical hobby for a teenage boy. This is important because many people might pick up this novel expecting it to focus strongly on this topic, then be disappointed when it doesn't, so that's the first warning: it's not about skating of any kind. What it is about, you will quickly work out before it actually happens. In fact, if I tell you that Sam's mother had him when she was 16, and feels her life has been compromised by this, and Sam has just got a new girlfriend...you can ...  Read the complete review

The Author Nick Hornby is a contemporary British novelist with a string of bestsellers to his name (including the autobiographical Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, About a Boy and A Long Way Down). I'm a big fan of his work. He has a great knack of creating characters who are credible and who I, as the reader, care about. His books are always a joy to read and he cleverly takes normal, everyday situations and mixes in a page-turningly perfect concoction of drama, crisis and humour. The Story Slam tells the story of Sam, a teenager living in London with his divorced mother (who had Sam when she was 16 years old). Sam narrates his own story in ...  Read the complete review