Slam

By Nick Hornby.

Published by in 2007 by Puffin, London.

Nick Hornby does an amazing job of creating likable characters that resonate with readers. He is especially adept at presenting the heart and soul of the modern man. His novel High Fidelity is a comedic masterpiece of heartbreak and rock music, one that I loved as a teenager and still love now. I found Slam slightly more difficult to get into. High Fidelity is about a man in his 30s (and I read it when I was probably about 18), Slam is about a young boy-man who is 15 (and I am now 27)- so it's not the fact that my age is different from the protagonist that is keeping me away from the story. Instead I think that Slam is more about the story than it is about the character, and character is the thing that really pulls me in and makes me love a novel. In this case I just, sort of, read it. It was fine, parts of it were interesting, parts of it were funny - but I didn't love it.

Slam is about 15 year old Sam. Sam's mum had him when she was 16, and will soon become a 33 year old Grandmother (although no one is pregnant at the start of the novel, but this development is far from surprising when it unfolds). Sam's father is on the scene, but at a distance, and Sam's true male role model is Tony Hawk (pro skateboarder - sorry, skater). Sam has read Tony Hawk's autobiography multiple times, and when Sam talks to his poster of Hawk he hears passages from the book that fit (or sometimes don't) his situation. The novel is a fairly straightforward account of how Sam goes from a 15 year old kid to a dad, although there is a strange phenomenon occurring wherein Sam is rushed forward in time for a few days, and then wakes up to find himself back in the present. This happens twice, and while it is odd, these passages make for the most compelling sections of the story, with Sam puzzling out how to fit into his new reality.

Overall the book makes for an interesting portrait of teen dads, and explores a side of an issue that is usually only seen from the perspective of the mother (there are lots of tales of young mothers and teenage pregnancy, but I have come across very few - if any - about young fathers).

7/10.
Ages 12-16.