GoodReads: Slam by Nick Hornby

Slam by Nick Hornby

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Nick Hornby continues to be brilliant. He writes in the way that people actually talk without making the dialogue feel dumbed down or vulgar. Reading Slam made me feel like I was in England again, which drew me in immediately. It's unusual for me to find engaging books written from the perspective of young men, but I became an immediate fam of High Fidelity, and Slam did not disappoint.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to see Nick Hornby on campus. In a Q&A session with a handful of students he said one thing that has always stuck with me, and I think it's deeply reflected in his work. He said: In order to be any sort of artist, you have to maintain a certain amount of immaturity. You have to be immature enough to believe that the world actually wants—or really, needs—to read/see/hear what it is you have to say. The protagonist of Slam maintains this immaturity through the nature of his youth and through his candor, and it happens seamlessly and beautifully.

Even the slightly magical aspects of the book—the time travel and the talking poster—fit into the framework without showing any work.

A great YA novel that expands on the mind of the young father, Slam is great for Nick Hornby fans and general YA readers alike. Bottom line: Nick Hornby could do more to fix sex education in American than our government ever will.

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Here Now, and...

I don't have to miss the mountains anymore, because I live here now. I have a job and a little apartment, and I'm about to have a part-time internship at an amazing magazine. And now I'm only 25 miles away from that guy I really love, you know, the one I'm going to marry.

Between my new job and my freelance Web site project and trying to get this internship, I've been pretty busy. About five times in the past two weeks I've thought to myself: "Hey, that's really interesting, you should blog about it." But the moment passes and then I can't remember any of the subjects that were so great. I'm sure there was something about books, or food, or design, or the mountains. Or maybe the Olympics.

Sometimes its hard to remember this is here, but really I've always had this problem with journals -- so wonderful when I use them, but often forgotten in the busiest of times. As my very busy friend once reminded me: the more there is to write about, the less time there is to write it. I'm sure I've used that before too.

So here's to the coming Labor Day resolutions, and to whoever out there is willing to help me stick to them. Peace.