Slam (original 2007; edição 2007)

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So I know that most literature is always about men, for men, and from the perspective of a man, because the ability to write, to read, and to have perspective in general has been denied women for most of written history. But why is it that 99.999% of books are written with crap characters who never act as their real counterparts might? How is it that it happens so rarely that an author is able to capture the psyche of the male, if that is all they have been working on for generations?

And how is Nick Hornby so good at it? I smiled with recognition nearly throughout the book. Sure there were tons of bullshit cliches. And sure it was corny that this kid listened to Green Day and talked to Tony Hawk for advice. But how is it that Nick Hornby is able to capture the thought patterns of teenage boys (and, as someone who is well out of his teen years, men in general), and the details are the only shit parts? It's usually the other way around.

We watch Sam mosey through life like a real kid, acting like a real kid, and DEFINITELY communicating like a real person. Nick Hornby has some insight into the male brain, its true. We watch Sam think carefully about his words, carefully working out which are the best responses, and then, when he actually says them, he's blindsided with the response that he never saw coming, and as a reader, we also never saw. Its really a pleasure to live inside a real character, and to feel real emotions. Frankly, its rare, and its why I stay away from fiction in general.

I really enjoyed this one. I laughed a lot, and I even cried a little when the character cried right after the baby was born. ( )

In this novel, Hornby tackles the male adolescent mind rather than the adolescent qualities of the grown male mind. It is very funny at times. The hapless son of a teenage mother gets his girlfriend pregnant when he is only sixteen. There are all kinds of well-meaning people in his life, but he gets most of his advise from a poster of Tony Hawk, his idol, who is only able to speak in lines from his autobiography. ( )