Part 2. 50-150 pagish: Characters

The character that will be centered in this log is Alicia; she is one of the main characters in the book so far and was introduced early in the book. Her age is said to be similar to Sam’s and Sam was not her first guy to start a relationship with.

Alicia is described as very gorgeous and quickly became Sam’s girlfriend. She lives with her old and successful parents in a fancy house. Sam’s mother is a friend of Alicia’s mother and they meet through them during a party at Alicia’s house.

Alicia is apparently quite popular and the reason why she chooses to have a relationship with Sam is a bit unclear besides her saying that she likes him; it might simply be because Sam didn’t just simply want to have sex with her but rather just spend time with her. She does neither appear as clever nor dumb despite her clever parents as she is not doing very well in school but still never shown any signs of stupidity. Alicia wishes to become a model rather than studying during her early life. When they first meet at the party Alicia acted like Sam was just trying to get her in bed and she was being a bit unsocial.

                                      ‘’Listen. You are gorgeous. But the problem is, you know it,

                                        and you think you can treat people like dirt because of it’’

                                                                   Sam when he first meets Alicia.

                                                                                                                                                                    Slam, 2007, Nick Hornby, p 24.

One can see Alicia as a bit of the opposite of a slag, she appears to be more reserved as she would only trust certain people. Later in the book Alicia appears to have become pregnant and the theme quickly goes from a romance story into a life story. Alicia also says that she wishes to keep the baby despite Sam believes it would turn his life upside down the same way it happened to his mother who had a very painful life until recently as she had to educate herself and raise Sam. Despite Alicia and Sam had broken up just before she claimed she was pregnant she seems to show strong feelings for Sam, for example how she wishes to keep their baby and raise it together. So far it is hard for one to comment this book as most of the content is quite casual and normal which perhaps was on purpose by the author to get you deeper into the book as you can see yourself in Sam.