“Slam” by Nick Hornby Introduction

Home , A Long Way Down, Fever Pitch, High Fidelity (novel), How to Be Good, Nick Hornby, Slam (novel)

Generalitat de Catalunya Departament d’Ensenyament Escoles Oficials d’Idiomes

Introduction

This text can be used to make students reflect upon their own pronunciation and the topic of immigration.

In the passage chosen, Dave is shocked by the fact that a Spanish lady whose English is not good enough is working for the Council .The text, which comes in the middle of the novel, is an extract taken from the contemporary novel “Slam” by Nick Hornby.

Suggested EOI level: 4th and 5th

Nick Hornby was born in Redhill, Surrey, 17th April 1957 and educated at Cambridge University; he works and lives in Highbury, North London.

'Every English writer needs their corner that is forever England - but only a few brave men choose to make that corner Highbury. Who would have thought the square mile around Arsenal's stadium could be a suitable surrogate for the whole wide world?' Zadie Smith, Time

'I started by writing plays. They were sort of screen-cum-radio-cum-TV plays, and they weren't very good … When I left university and I tried to write, everything came out sounding like bad essays, so I thought I should stick to dialogue. I hadn't done enough reading-not of the things I wanted to emulate-so it took me a while, a long while, to grapple with voice … everything changed for me when I read Anne Tyler, Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, and Lorrie Moore, all in about '86-'87 … voice, tone, simplicity, humour, soul ... all of these things seemed to be missing from the contemporary English fiction I'd looked at, and I knew then what I wanted to do'

Nick’s first book was a collection of critical essays on American writers, entitled Contemporary American Fiction (1992).

Nick's best-known books are the internationally bestselling novels High Fidelity, About A Boy, How To Be Good and A Long Way Down. Nick's non-fiction books include the football memoir Fever Pitch and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, a collection of Nick's essays on books and culture. He is also the author of Slam, which is vintage Hornby for teenagers. His latest book is Juliet, Naked, a novel about rock stars, relationships and last chances.

More information on the author: http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/nickhornby/index.html

Materials elaborats pel grup de treball Brit-lit – Departament d’Ensenyament / British Council Slam, Nick Hornby. Introduction 1