Slam (novel)

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Slam is a novel published in 2007 by English author Nick Hornby . It is about the sixteen year old boy Sam, who is completely overwhelmed with the unwanted pregnancy of his 16 year old friend Alicia.

main characters

  • Sam Jones - A 16 year old teenager who skates and talks to a Tony Hawk poster .
  • Alicia Burns - Sam's 16-year-old friend.
  • Annie Jones - Sam's 32-year-old mother.
  • Sam's father - is divorced from Sam's mother and therefore plays a rather small role in Sam's life, which is also due to the fact that Sam considers him to be someone who is not worth taking seriously.
  • Rufus "Roof" Jones - Sam and Alicia's child.
  • Andrea and Robert Burns - Alicia's parents.
  • Mark - Sam's mother's new friend.
  • Rabbit and Rubbish (nicknames) - friends Sam skates with together.
  • Alex & Carl - future partners of Sam and Alicia, whom Sam only sees in a future vision.
  • Oliver - Sam's mother meets him at her work colleague's party.
  • Rich Burns - Alicia's older brother.
  • Jason Gerson - Alicia's previous boyfriend.
  • Emily - Annie and Mark's daughter.

content

The almost 16-year-old skater Sam is taken by his mother to a seemingly boring birthday party of one of her work colleagues, where he meets Alicia, about whom his mother has already raved about. Alicia is considered beautiful by Sam and he is immediately interested in her. After her initial arrogance, she also shows interest in him. She tells him that she only recently left her previous boyfriend because he wanted to sleep with her. To Sam's great surprise, Alicia wants to sleep with him the next day - which he thinks is an act of defiance. So he hesitates at first and wants to leave, but when Alicia starts to cry, he makes up his mind and thus has his first time with Alicia. The two are then a couple for a few months and sleep together regularly. Once Alicia persuades Sam not to use a condom. During this act, Sam has a mishap - he ejaculates halfway into Alicia, but Alicia does not notice it. Sam later realizes that Alicia's parents do not have a positive attitude towards him, as they inadvertently imply that, unlike Alicia, he is stupid and has no future. Sam loses interest in Alicia some time later and breaks off contact with her shortly afterwards.

On Sam's 16th birthday, he receives a text message from Alicia asking him to meet with him about an urgent matter. When Sam complies with this request, he can already guess what it is about. He learns that Alicia should have had her period 3 weeks ago. However, since the two of them do not have enough money for a pregnancy test, Alicia leaves to get money from home. However, she needs more time than planned, so Sam, who was supposed to be waiting for her, turns off his cell phone and goes home. After one of the many conversations with his Tony Hawk poster, something completely unusual suddenly happens: He is (in his opinion Tony Hawk ) moved about a year into the future and lives there for a day with Alicia and their baby Roof. He feels the day is utterly terrible, and when he wakes up in his own time, he realizes that this future was real. He then flees in a panic to Hastings and throws his phone into the sea. However, he only stays for one day and then returns to Islington (London), where he lives.

On the third day after Sam's return, Alicia visits him and tells him that she is pregnant but does not want to have an abortion under any circumstances. Things take their course: The two tell their parents the news, Alicia screwed up her exams for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (which her parents attribute to her pregnancy), Sam and Alicia attend a parent preparation course, and Rufus (named after Rufus Wainwright , there one of his songs when their child is born), called "Roof", is born, whereupon Sam moves into the house of Alicia and her parents Andrea and Robert in Highbury New Park near Islington, London one day later . A little later, Sam's first vision of the future becomes a fact.

Sam and Alicia handle their parenting roles relatively well, as expected. But then Sam experiences another vision of the future in which he and Alicia are separated and Sam lives again in his mother's apartment. This vision of the future also occurs after a conversation with his father, but that in no way means for Sam to neglect his fatherly duties. Some time later, Sam and Alicia start sleeping together again. However, they are caught once by Andrea and confronted by her and Robert. Alicia says she and Sam want to give their relationship another chance. However, Sam is now aware that he doesn't love Alicia. In the conversation, which degenerates into an argument, Andrea makes it clear that she does not tolerate a sexual relationship between Sam and Alicia. This ends the partnership between Sam and Alicia for good.

Sam's mother Annie later gives birth to her and Mark's daughter, Emily.

The third and final vision of the future that Sam experiences shows him and Alicia each with new partners in a Chinese restaurant. Obviously, he and Alicia are on friendly terms. Sam learns that he has a job and that some of him go to college. He also learns to his disappointment that he has given up skating. This vision of the future, which Sam feels as positive all round, is the end of the book.

Reviews

In their review of the novel in 2008, Die Zeit praised Hornby's humor and the “suppleness of his language” as well as his “enviable ability to set punch lines”, but criticized the fact that Hornby wrote flat “feel-good literature” here, against which there would be nothing to be said are not permanently simulated, there is more to it, the big questions are at stake ”.

Audio book

Slam was published in 2009 as an audio book by Der Hörverlag in a shortened version, read by Matthias Schweighöfer .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Such a joke in: Die Zeit, January 31, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2013.