Slam by Nick Hornby novel extract

Slam

by Nick Hornby (2007) !

Before reading: read the Sam is 16 and has, to his horror, just discovered that his ex-girlfriend title, what could the novel be Alicia is pregnant. Sam is himself the result of a teen pregnancy, and about? has grown up with a single mother who is now 32, only 16 years While reading: visualise the older than him. His mother has always been terrified by the thought characters. of history repeating itself, and Sam has been warned all his life of the consequences of a teen pregnancy. With his life and future planned out, his initial reaction to Alicia’s news was to panic and run away. GLOSSARY He eventually comes to his senses and joins Alicia in informing her parents about the pregnancy. Her parents were far older than Sam’s mum when they had Alicia, they are well off and live in a house that is far bigger than the flat that Sam shares with his mother. In their eyes, Sam is obviously to blame for the entire mess. ‘What’s on your mind?’ said Alicia’s dad. Alicia looked at me. I cleared my throat. Nobody said anything. ‘I’m going to have a baby,’ I said. I don’t think I need to tell you that I wasn’t trying to be funny. It just came out wrong. I think it was because Alicia had given me that little lecture about how everything had to be ‘we’ from now on. I’d taken it too seriously. I knew the baby wasn’t just hers, but now I’d overdone it, and made it so that the baby was just mine. Whatever the reason, we couldn’t have had a worse start. Because Alicia made a kind of snorting sound, which was her trying not to laugh. I’d said something stupid because I was nervous, and Alicia had wanted to laugh because she was nervous, but her dad About the Author didn’t take any notice of our nerves. He just went nuts. ‘You think this is FUNNY?’ he shouted, and I realized that they Nick Hornby had guessed. In films, and I think probably in life too, people go The previous teacher and now fullquiet when they hear bad news. Or they repeat the last word. You time English writer Nick Hornby know, ‘A baby?’ But he didn’t do that. He just started shouting. Alicia’s mum wasn’t shouting, though. She started crying and (1957–) has had huge success with his novels. His moving, funny and insightful fiction explores topics sort of slumped on the kitchen table with her arms over her head. such as football, books, music, ‘And we’re keeping it,’ said Alicia. ‘I’m not getting rid of it.’ relationship break-ups, obsessions ‘Don’t be so ridiculous,’ said her dad. ‘You can’t care for a baby at and insecurity. Slam is his first your age. Either of you.’ young adult novel.

to his horror til sin forskrekkelse / til si forskrekking terrified livredd consequences konsekvenser/ konsekvensar initial første comes to his senses tar til vettet / tar til vitet well off rik mess rot give someone a lecture lekse opp for noen / lekse opp for nokon snorting prustende/prustande slumped falt/fall obsessions tvangstanker/ tvangstankar Vurderingseksemplar

GLOSSARY

ridiculous latterlig/latterleg sense her: vett/vit thick her: dum presume anta contraception prevensjon

‘Plenty of girls my age do,’ said Alicia. ‘Not girls like you,’ said her dad. ‘Usually they’ve got more sense.’ ‘Do you hate us?’ said her mum suddenly. ‘Is that what this is about?’ ‘Mum, you know I don’t hate you,’ said Alicia. ‘I’m talking to him,’ said her mother. And then, when I looked at her, all confused, she said, ‘Yes. You.’ I just shook my head. I didn’t know what else to do. ‘Because this stops her getting away, doesn’t it?’ I didn’t know what she was talking about, really. ‘How do you mean?’ I said. ‘How do you mean?’ she said, in a stupid voice that I think was supposed to show I was thick. ‘He’s got nothing to do with it,’ said Alicia. And then, before her parents could say anything, she said, ‘Well, something to do with it. But it was my decision to keep the baby. He didn’t want to, I don’t think. And also, I’d already got away. He didn’t want to be with me.’ ‘How did this happen?’ said her mum. ‘I presumed you were having sex. I didn’t think you were too stupid to use contraception.’ ‘We did use contraception,’ said Alicia. ‘So how did this happen?’ ‘We don’t know.’ I knew, but I didn’t really want to go into all that stuff about things half happening just at the wrong time. It didn’t really matter now. ‘And what makes you think you want a baby? You couldn’t look after a goldfish.’ ‘That was years ago.’ ‘Yes. Three years ago. You were a kid then, and you’re a kid now. Vurderingseksemplar God. I don’t believe we’re having this conversation.’ ‘What happened to the goldfish?’ I said. But everyone ignored me. It was a stupid question. What happened to her goldfish was probably the same thing that happened to my goldfish, and everybody else’s goldfish. You don’t sell them, or have them adopted, do you? They all get flushed down the toilet in the end. ‘What about your mother, Sam? What does she think?’ ‘She doesn’t know yet.’ ‘Right. Let’s go and talk to her. Now. All of us.’ ‘That’s not fair, Mum,’ said Alicia.

"What about your mother, Sam? What does she think?" "She doesn’t know yet."

GLOSSARY fair rettferdig whiny sutrete apologized unnskyldte seg / unnskylde seg I didn’t think it was fair either, but I couldn’t think of a reason why it wasn’t. ‘Why is it “snot fair”?’ said her mum. She put on another silly voice, this time one that was supposed to show that Alicia was a whiny little girl. ‘Because we should have the chance to tell her without you being there. She’s not here now, is she? When we told you?’ ‘Can I ask you something, Sam?’ said Alicia’s dad. He hadn’t spoken for a while. ‘Yeah. Course.’ ‘I remember your mother at the party where you met Alicia. She’s very pretty, isn’t she?’ ‘I dunno. S’pose, yeah.’ ‘Young and pretty.’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘How old is she?’ Vurderingseksemplar ‘She’s ... Well, yeah, she’s thirty-two.’ ‘Thirty-two. So she was sixteen when you were born.’ I didn’t say anything. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he said. ‘Don’t you people ever learn anything?’ They did come with us in the end. They calmed down, and Alicia’s mum told her dad off for what he’d said, and he apologized. I knew I wasn’t going to forget it, though. ‘You people’. Which people? The people who have babies when they’re sixteen? What kind of people are they? It was my idea that we all went together. l was afraid.

GLOSSARY

miserable fortvila syringe sprøyte decapitated halshugget/halshogd put a lid on it ti stille / teie still put off utsette/utsetje pregnant gravid bear her: orke proper virkelig/verkeleg

ACTION

It wasn’t as if I thought my mum would do anything to me. I was just afraid of how miserable she was going to be. Of all the things she was afraid of this was probably number one. It would be better, l thought, if she’d always been afraid of me getting hooked on drugs, and I turned up with a syringe sticking out of me. At least she could pull it out. It would be better if she’d always been afraid of me being decapitated, and l turned up with my head tucked under my arm. At least I’d be dead. So I was hoping that if the four of us turned upon the doorsteps she’d have to put a lid on it, at least until they’d gone. Oh, everything was in the short term. That was the only way I could think. If I went to Hastings, I could put things off for a day. If Alicia’s mum and dad came with me to my house to tell my mum I’d made their daughter pregnant, it wouldn’t be quite so terrible for an hour or so. I couldn’t bear to think about the proper future, so I just tried to make things better for the next twenty minutes or so, over and over again. → Want to read on? Go online for more from the novel. 22 In groups of five, divide the following tasks: make a list of the characters, a storyboard, a list of the basic emotions in the text, a STAR analysis of Sam or a double bubble of Sam and Alicia. a Compare your answers in groups of students who did the same task. Fill in additional information you learned from the other Vurderingseksemplarstudents. b Return to your original group. Present your answers and teach the other members about your task. Make sure to take notes when the other tasks are explained.

23 In pairs: a What do you think Alicia’s father means when he says “you people”? b Discuss the differences between Sam’s family and Alicia’s family. Make a list of examples from the text. c What is your opinion of how the characters cope with the situation? Illustrate your opinions with examples. d Think back to the expressions “keeping up appearances”, “stiff upper lip” and “Keep

Calm and Carry On”. Which of the characters do you think are most concerned with appearances, and why? e Discuss why you think teenage pregnancies are viewed as challenging.

24 Work in groups of four. Two students research the author Nick Hornby, and the other two students research teenage pregnancies in the UK.

Make a short presentation for each other.