Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Slam by Nick Hornby

I love pretty much all of Nick Horby's books. If you haven't read him before try High Fidelity, About a Boy, How to be Good and this one, Slam. Set in England this this book is about Sam. Sam loves skating (skateboarding) and is into girls, particularly this girl Alicia. As is apparent from the cover of the paperback, Sam and Alicia have sex and Alicia gets pregnant. That's where the whole "this is a book about teen pregnancy" goes out the window because Sam sort of gets whisked into the future. He has no idea what is going on which makes his forays into fatherhood that much more hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. Despite the sci-fi aspects of the time-travel, this book is always realistic especially the dialogue, the gravity of the situation that Alicia and Sam find themselves in and the fights they have. Nothing is simple, including the relationship A and S have with their families. So, a book about relationship, true to life, with sex, love, and skating. And an occasional appearance from Tony Hawk.