Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134543 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

The Observer, October 7, 2007
'Hornby takes away the raw ironies of life and gently rubs away at them to reveal gems of bittersweet truth.'

Telegraph, October 18, 2007
'Very funny...very real'

Arena, October, 2007
'Warm, witty and wise'

Customer Reviews

for hornby - disappointing
I have been a great fan of Nick Hornby's writing for a long, long time now. I enjoy his style, all his novels impressing me with their dry sarcasm and spot on observations.

Therefore, I was really looking forward to Slam - so maybe I expected too much. This has been his weakest work for me personally. It's still undeniably funny; due to Hornby being a brilliant writer. But something about the story left me feeling indifferent towards what I had read; it's not something that will stay with me, which is disappointing considering Hornby's normal standards.

Teenage Kicks
I wasn't particularly looking forward to reading Nick Hornby's `Slam', his first teenage novel. It was nineteen years since I was last a teenager and even then I think I was probably too old for the term to really stick. However this was a novel by Nick Hornby whose `High Fidelity' is my favourite novel; whose `Fever Pitch' is my favourite memoir; I think you get the idea, I like Nick Hornby, I don't however like teenagers. Anyway there was nothing for it, I had to roll up my sleeves, grit my teeth, grasp the nettle and take the book by the spine.

I'm so glad I did, what a fantastic and painfully funny book. Certainly Hornby's best since `About a Boy' with which it sets a fairly consistent tone. This is quite remarkable as `Slam' is written in the first person as a teenage boy. Although `About a Boy' was very insightful into the mind of an adolescent boy and his relationship with the adults around him it didn't have to do it in the boy's voice. `Slam' is written in a very convincing voice of a fifteen year old boy, although the language and passions for music and skating very much tie the novel to the present the spirit in which it is written ties it to teenagers of any generation and consequently I can feel a certain empathy for a teenager I could obviously have fathered.

I don't want to tell you anything of the plot as it would spoil the book to hear about it in my voice rather than `Sam's', trust me it's better than the blurb which relies too heavily on the Tony Hawks fandom to give a balanced appreciation of the book.

I think that the reason that Sam's voice in `Slam' works is that it still resonates with the same passion as Rob's did in `High Fidelity'. Perhaps the reason Hornby and even I can understand this character so well is that we belong to the first generation that never grew up, we are still essentially teenagers. The four hundred or so middle aged men jumping up and down to `Teenage Kicks' at a recent Undertones concert I attended possibly suffer from the same malaise.

On the skids
I thought this was a disappointing novel from Nick Hornby. I have read all his books, and have found them progressively better, which is unusual. I thought 'A long way down' was an excellent mix of humour and gravitas, but this one doesn't really cut it. I don't find Hornby convincing writing as a teenager; it seems a rather forced adult view that doesn't really chime with how I see my kids and their friends. The talking poster is frankly annoying pretty quickly. The comparisons with Salinger's Catcher in the Rye are absurd - it's not in the same league. Sorry Nick, I preferred you writing for grown-ups. Some good jokes though as usual, and still better than most contemporary novelists.