This Must Be One of the Tatty Pairs
Slam by Nick Hornby / Ted Boynton
Probably all of us have a fondness for one or another groovy song that, along with several brilliant bits, trails off with a weak finish that leaves us wondering: “Wasn’t there anything better?” As I tried to place Nick Hornby’s latest novel, Slam, among his largely excellent catalogue of modernist fiction, it struck me that Slam fits this strained metaphor: It’s the “nahhh-nah-na-NAH-na-NAH” from Journey’s “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’”; the ill-conceived guitar interlude from the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Other Side”; the “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier” from the Killers’ “All These Things That I’ve Done.” In other words, the non-stellar part I could readily skip.
To be fair, Hornby jumps genres here into young adult fiction; a 40-year-old reviewer is not the target audience. Nonetheless, a well-worn cautionary tale jazzed up with a couple of narrative gimmicks does not a great book make. Slam tells the story of a 15-year-old Londoner, Sam, who impregnates his girlfriend Alicia, also 15. A skater kid with a decent heart and a soft head, Sam is even less prepared than the average 15-year-old for such a disastrous event: His blue-collar father generally absents himself from Sam’s life, and Sam’s only “real” friend is the imaginary presence of skateboard god Tony Hawk, who talks to Sam through a poster in Sam’s bedroom. These problems are compounded by the casual snobbery of Alicia’s parents toward Sam and his divorced mother, herself only 32, and by Sam’s callow dreaminess.
To liven up a shopworn premise, Hornby employs a pair of narrative devices that sound interesting until one actually plows into them. As mentioned above, when Sam is in a tough spot, he talks to his Tony Hawk poster, which talks right back. The catch: Hawk speaks only in snippets from his autobiography, which Sam has read several dozen times:
Sam: [returning home after a fight with Alicia] I just have a bit of a cold. So I’ve come home for a few days.Hawk: [referring to his first wife] I knew that even though I still loved Cindy, we lived in two separate worlds that were not uniting. In September of 1994 we split up.
Hawk’s responses are frequently of no use to Sam, limited as they are by the contents of Hawk’s book. More to the point, however, the device is annoying and its purpose muddled. In conjunction with the sage wisdom of Sam’s sympathetic mum, a worthy theme might have emerged about trust, family, and heroes, but the snippets of Hawk-speak are frequently puzzling and irrelevant. A cynic would observe that a novelist might try to connect with a target audience by shoehorning in a popular figure that doesn’t really belong in the story.
Sam is also occasionally catapulted into the future by Hawk, ending up in situations where he is expected to know a great deal more than he does, having not experienced the intervening time period. In one instance, Sam goes to sleep not yet sure that Alicia is pregnant, only to wake up in her bed, living in her parents’ house after the baby has arrived. Sam must get up to care for it, but he has arrived without the necessary how-to knowledge. (Sam later returns to his “real” time.) Hornby does good work capturing the jarring uncertainty of awakening in drastically-changed circumstances, but the gimmick is irritating in the novel’s structure because the jumps remain essentially unexplained. Again, there is a reasonably intriguing metaphor here about the displaced sense of arriving at a Big Life Moment without a recollection of the linear path preceding it. Hornby doesn’t close the loop, however, which seems a problem in a novel directed at younger readers.
Having said all that, Hornby remains a modern master — even if he’s built a dinghy instead of a yacht, it’s going to be a pretty damn good dinghy. Slam is shot through with poignant and humorous passages that prove Hornby can still summon his powers, such as an exchange near the end of the book when Sam’s largely useless father comes through with a bit of valuable advice. The tense relationship between Alicia’s parents is also affecting, as her mother’s long-simmering marital dissatisfaction boils in the crucible of Alicia’s lost opportunities. And as demonstrated in High Fidelity, no one — but no one — captures the stomach-churning intensity of young love and romantic confusion as well as Hornby.
Still, it’s hard to escape the feeling that Slam is a less-compelling episode in the life of Marcus from About a Boy, three years on from where we left him. (It’s no surprise that Nicholas Hoult, the young actor who played Marcus, was chosen to read the audiobook for Slam.) Writing for teenagers shouldn’t drastically change the nature of quality writing; there’s no reason an intelligent 16-year-old can’t appreciate a book like High Fidelity. Likewise, one expects that Hornby is plenty capable of writing YA fiction that older readers would appreciate as a peer of his prior works. Interspersed among his rich, innovative novels, Hornby has periodically stretched his writing with non-fiction essays and literary analysis, and each of his works has the unmistakable Hornby magic to a greater or lesser extent. Alas, while Slam is an enjoyable read, it definitely falls within the “lesser” category.
Ted Boynton is a dedicated sot who would leave his barstool only to stalk Whit Stillman, if anyone could find Whit Stillman. Ted also manages to hold down a job and a wife, three hours each per day, whether they need it or not. Readers may scold, hector, admonish or taunt Ted by e-mailing him at thecarygrantrules@hotmail.com.
We Have Hivo | | Pajiba Love 11/12/07
Comments
Oh brrrrrother, Tony Hawk?
I'll wait for Wii version.
Posted by: BarbadoSlim at November 12, 2007 12:26 PM
You know I would scold, hector, admonish and taunt you, but I suspect you'd enjoy it too much. Besides my leather brazier is at the dry-cleaners!
Minx. tb
Posted by: PaddyDog at November 12, 2007 12:48 PM
Amazon recommended this book to me (I actually still frequent Young Adult fiction as I love escapism) the subject line of the email was "if you liked Catcher in the Rye". At the time I couldn't decide whether or not I should be pissed on behalf of Catcher. Yes, it's Hornby, but I detest it when a new book gets marketed on a classic book's success.
You made my decision for me. Thanks.
Posted by: Scarlett at November 12, 2007 1:48 PM
For what it's worth, as a youth services librarian, this book is getting lots of buzz.
Young Adult Librarians are generally excited about it and they tend to be a pretty good gage of how teens will react.
But more importantly, teens are talking about it, albeit in that strained terse way 15 year-old boys do, but that is the buzz that counts.
Posted by: libraryliz at November 12, 2007 2:12 PM
Would that be young adults who have chosen a career as librarians or librarians who specialize in young adult literature?
Posted by: PaddyDog at November 12, 2007 2:20 PM
Librarians who specialize in "young adult" literature and services. Also known as teen librarians. Typically defined as 6th or 7th grade through senior year of high school. Like a children's librarian, only instead of preschool storytime, they get to have D&D clubs, anime discussions, and the like.
Posted by: libraryliz at November 12, 2007 2:30 PM
I knew that Hornby had a new book out, but I had no idea it was classified as "young adult." This led to me spending entirely too much time looking for it all over a Barnes and Noble. When I finally relented and asked someone who worked there, they told me "young adult" and I responded with "that can't be right." Guess it can.
Posted by: bartap at November 12, 2007 2:35 PM
I met Hornby two or three weeks ago in conjunction with this book's release, and he did a reading and a Q&A for us. Very cool event, very cool guy, and I was pleased that I managed to make him laugh with my planned quip when he signed my weathered and highlighted copy of High Fidelity.
As for the book itself, I agree it doesn't quite measure up to his earlier novels, but I think Hornby fans will still enjoy it. I certainly did.
I began reading this not expecting to like it much. What do I care about some teenage skater? And how many times can we hear the tale about the unexpected pregnancy and all the personal upheaval that ensues? But Hornby pulled me into it, and I connected with Sam. Hornby's greatest strength - creating a believable, compelling voice for his protagonists - is on full display here. Sam is not the brightest bulb, but he manages to convey some very simple and profound truths, and the way that Hornby pulls this off is not overbearing in the least.
My other concern was the Tony Hawk autobiography tie-in. Again - why do I care, and how much of this book is going to consist of rambling excerpts about Tony Hawk's life? Thus, I was pleased to find that the device is used very sparingly, and I was very pleased by the cryptic manner by which it is employed that is mentioned in this review. Tony Hawk does not know the definitive answers any better than Sam does.
So why Tony Hawk? As Hornby explained it, he originally conceived of a soccer player as the idol in question, as that obviously something to which he most easily relates, but skateboarding emerged in his mind as the natural interest for his hero of this new generation. (As it so happens, Tony Hawk has cited High Fidelity as his favorite book and was honored to have Hornby give him a call for permission.)
I did not have a problem with the "time travel" device. As you say, it is an effective way to give that sense of unexpectedness in life, and I'm not certain what "loop" needs to be closed. The fact that it is left unexplained and unresolved ties into the whole theme of the novel, as I see it. It's that old cliche, "Life is what happens while you're making other plans." In the end, the characters of Slam make the best of their situations without any guarantees - just as Tony Hawk does in his life as he describes it - and there's a certain comfort in that life just keeps on happening for better or for worse.
Posted by: Darth Corleone at November 12, 2007 4:39 PM
Libraryliz - being a librarian is my "other job" (meaning, the job I'd secretly love to have).
Hmmm, sexy librarian. Double-minx. tb
Posted by: Samantha T at November 12, 2007 5:06 PM
Similarly disastrous,was Tony Parsons' miscalculated turn into,er,rock journalism (?) with Stories We Could Tell--some of his previous books are still my faves,but SWCT was beyond garbage.
Also,after seeing 'The Time Traveller's Wife' listed in one of the big lists here,I ain't taking any book recommendations from you guys,ever.That one was downright toxic.
Posted by: Daniel at November 12, 2007 7:50 PM
Similarly disastrous,was Tony Parsons' miscalculated turn into,er,rock journalism (?) with Stories We Could Tell--some of his previous books are still my faves,but SWCT was beyond garbage.
Also,after seeing 'The Time Traveller's Wife' listed in one of the big lists here,I ain't taking any book recommendations from you guys,ever.That one was downright toxic.
Posted by: Daniel at November 12, 2007 7:51 PM
Hornby is a sentimental hack. That's not literature, that's disposable simulacra masquerading as zeitgeisty semipalimpsest of pseudoprofundity. It's ephemeral and belongs with the transient effluvia of our plastic reality. Succintly speaking - it's soft shite on par with David ("Wobblehead") Grey's "music" and Paul ("Turdbrain") Haggis's "films". It's crap.
As for me - I know long words!
Posted by: Toothed Varmint at November 13, 2007 3:50 AM
"the "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier" from the Killers' "All These Things That I've Done."
Awww, really? That's my favourite bit of the song - but then I've always liked a bit of choral in pop.
Great review though!
Posted by: Anna at November 13, 2007 6:44 AM
Boo! I was quite disappointed with A Long Way Down - though I think that would make for a better film than novel - and now I'm again to be dismayed?
Enh, I'll probably pick it up eventually.
Posted by: Jams at November 13, 2007 12:46 PM
Ever since this came out I've been on the fence between love of Nick Hornby and dread of 'teen' fiction. Think I'll split the difference and read the whole thing in Barnes and Noble without actually buying it.
Posted by: Kris at November 13, 2007 11:24 PM
umm.... "I've got soul but I'm not a solider" is the best part of the song, so I don't entirely understand your analogy.
Posted by: jess at November 15, 2007 6:45 PM