Saturday, January 26, 2008

Book Review: "Slam"

Nick Hornby's Slam is an excellent bit of fiction, told expertly from the perspective of a 15-year old English boy. Sam's an average Joe sort of kid, a pretty good skater (that's skateboarder, he'd have you know) who draws inspiration and support from a rather unlikely place: the poster of Tony Hawk he's got hanging on his bedroom wall. But even Tony's not much help when Sam finds himself faced with the fact that he's impregnated his equally youthful girlfriend.

Horny captures Sam's point of view brilliantly, and while I found one of his plot devices a little meh, I enjoyed the humor and overall message of the book. Oh, and I decided very early on that "rubbish" is a very underused adjective on this side of the Pond.