Slam, by Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is one of my favourite writers, even though his characters are typically so outrageous in my eyes that I have a hard time believing such people actually exist in real life. Slam is along those lines.

Note: spoilers coming up!

The story is simple. A regular 16-year-old boy finds out that his ex-girlfriend is pregnant with his child. We get to see how he deals with this news before, during and after the pregnancy.

Now, you can see why I find such characters outrageous. Things like teen pregnancy plainly don't happen in my world. Granted, Mr Hornby quoted the stat that says Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rate among rich countries. Still, high school kids who want to become parents are as strange to me as junkies who stick needles into their own veins. So, while sitting on a white sandy beach in the Riviera Maya in Mexico, I read Mr Hornby's usual humorous writing with many a chuckle and an occasional head shake, firm in my belief that the story is too outlandish to be plausible.

Well, guess what. Truth is indeed stranger than Fiction. I saw on the news ticker yesterday (Feb 15, 2009) a story in Britain where a 13-year-old boy is claiming to be the father of a baby born to a 15-year-old girl. His joy may be short-lived, as eight other teens are considered possible fathers to the baby. I think I owe Mr Hornby an apology.