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Slam | 
| Author: Nick Hornby
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £4.38
You Save: £3.61 (45%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 3211
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141321407
EAN: 9780141321400
ASIN: 0141321407
Publication Date: April 3, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Slam - oh the irony. October 22, 2008
I don't read many books, but I picked this one up on holiday at a book exchange. I gave up a reasonable Dick Francis novel, and not having read a Nick Hornby and heard that he was good, I went for Slam. I'd not done my research properly had I? Having read it, I'd have felt short changed handing in a blank piece of paper. This is dire. If I'd written this as part of my English GCSE coursework, it would have been returned with "waffle", "where's the story?" and "start again" written all over it.
I had to finish it in case there was an interesting twist, and I thought I'd found it in Chapter 16 when we meet a character that is only briefly mentioned earlier on. But no, it goes nowhere.
If you want to listen to a 15 year old skateboarder drone on about nothing, be my guest, but you've been warned. Credit though must go to Nick for writing so much quantity without any quality.
Allegedly, The Telegraph said: "Very funny... very real". eh? It's not funny at any point, and whizzing into the future is not part of my reality. Any interesting bits were written by TH (Tony Hawk) and not NH.
How did this get published?
If you're looking to read this book - do yourself a favour and do a one eighty.
Authentic but not unpredictable October 5, 2008
On Thursday I was off sick, so I read Slam by Nick Hornby. It is authentically narrated as a 15 year old skate-boy who thinks that Tony Hawk's autobiography is a guide for life. The book takes the reader through his first relationship and sexual experiences, and how these are influenced by his mum having had him when she was a teenager.
I didn't feel like it cut new ground, as the plot was simple and fairly predictable, but the voices were authentic and contemporary. There were also a few genuinely touching emotional moments. So, on balance I quite liked it. Its the kind of thing you could pick up in an airport, read during the flight, and leave at your destintion :)
Absolute Drivel September 30, 2008
I was only able to get half way through the book, and that was after forcing myself to read past the first chapter.
Having read super reviews of Nick Hornby's books, I thought I should give them a go - what a disappointment!.
Apart from a ridiculous story line (previous reviews have shown how weak this is), the whole book is written in a "verbal diarrhoea" style - anything that pops into ones head goes straight onto the page. Its the sort of thing you could produce in one afternoon with a cup of tea and a dictaphone. Probably exactly what Nick Hornby did.
I won't be reading any of his other books - life's too short and there are too many good books around that deserve to be read.
Silverflora
don't waste hours of your life wading through this! September 25, 2008
Don't know quite what was going on in Nick's head when he wrote this junk. And you know what? I'm not going to waste too much more of my life analysing it! All I need to tell you is that I got to the last page and actually threw the book on the floor in frustration and disappointment. It then went directly into the Recycling bin because I wouldn't risk inflicting this torture on anyone else! AND I only gave it one star because I'm impressed with Mr Hornby for managing to get it published it the first place. ARGH!!
Great for Teens, But Doesn't Crossover to Adults September 12, 2008
At times Hornby shows flashes of brilliance in creating the voice of Sam, a teenager who gets his girlfriend pregnant. But this is offset against the cardboard cutout nature of all the other characters, who we never really get to know. The book keeps the reader inside Sam's mind so that he or she feels side-by-side with Sam and his life - which works very well. However I found that I needed a richer and more interesting universe outside Sam and the baby. Hornby has clearly done a lot of research on teenage pregnancy and there is a little bit of Show and Tell about the book. It might have been a more rounded work if he had introduced a variety of teenage pregnancies because this one, despite Sam's problems, is a happy ending fairy tale that doesn't really penetrate the UK's problem with teenage pregnacies. Hornby is a lovely soft and human writer and I enjoyed reading this, but it's not his best.
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