What's the good difference between good and bad literature. ?

Question

For English I have to write a 2-3 page essay on if i think the book Slam by Nick Hornby is good or bad literature. I know retarded. Thanks!

Answer 1

Here is your homework -

  In my opinion, Nick Hornby's book " SLAM " is a " very good '' example of GOOD LITERATURE .  It was written  to be understood at the mental level of the average teen-ager.

The storyline follows pretty much what you would expect from pretty much any teen-pregnancy story with a couple of twists thrown in. The only son of a teenage mother, Sam finds out his ex-girlfriend is pregnant on his sixteenth birthday and reacts with a little more dignity and honor than you would expect from most boys in his situation. To help him deal with what seams like an impossible situation, Sam talks to a poster of skating icon Tony Hawk and at times finds himself swept away to the future when life gets so bad that he doesn't think he can deal anymore.

The author uses a " flash-forward " technique. Sam is thrown into future situations where he doesn't know what's required of him and barely has the knowledge or skills to make it through the day. It's a great way of illustrating what Sam's actual day-to-day life has become as an expectant and new father.

Even though I like the book and found the storyline quite east to follow,

the Tony Hawk theme was my least favorite part of the novel, as well as what made me less than thrilled with it overall. The "conversations" Sam had with Tony get less interesting as the book progresses, but the time warp idea is what really did in the story for me. I actually found that those sequences distracted from the story as opposed to adding to it. One of my favorite aspects of Hornby's writing is that it is so often believable. You don't feel as if you're reading about something that could never happen. However, Sam being projected into the future defies that element, and it does so (somewhat) at the expense of the story.

Still, I think  that attitudes were stressed quite well.  What I enjoyed most is that Hornby doesn't cop out or take the easy road at any point. He writes a mature story from an immature perspective and every thought, feeling and emotion is dead on. And the most interesting part is that although this novel is supposed to be "teen fiction," it still comes off as being mature.

What I really liked was that Hornby didn't use the opportunity to turn his novel into a public service announcement; you don't walk away from the story thinking "Boy, you're life is over if you're a teenage parent!".  This  twist is probably the best example of  " good literature '' throughout the whole book