Third entry: up to the middle of the novel

How my feelings change:

Of course my feelings changed. First I thought that Sam is a normal, happy young boy. He’s like we are. He goes to school and skates a lot. Although he is an only child and he lives only with his mother, without his dad, he lives in a controlled family background. He only has normal problems for his age. But now I think he is a really poor young boy and he has too big problems for his age. To become father with 16 is not normal. I can understand that he is very confused and he has anxiety. It’s a really hard situation for him and for his mother and for Alicia and their family, too. And I can understand that he has many sorrows. I don’t want to change my life with his life. I really commiserate him.

Which question(s) I would like to direct at a particular character in the novel:

• Sam, do you think it is right to run away from home? Don’t you think your mum will die because she has so many sorrows because of you/ you run away from home and her? And do you think it is fair to let Alicia by oneself with all the problems?
• Mr. Brady, who are you? Why are you so curious and so unfriendly to Sam? You don’t know Sam. And why do you live in this B&B? Haven’t you got a home and a wife?

What I am confused about (events or characters):

I’m a little bit confused about Hastings. Sam described it as a funfair with many jobs… and now he is there and there is nobody and no work. It seems to be an abandoned place with only very strange people. And he isn’t really happy there. Mr. Brady is also a strange person. His character is a little bit confusing. And why wrote Nick Hornby this chapters? I think these pages are really dispensable. It’s boring to read this chapter. It’s too long. He could write this much shorter. And why wrote Nick Hornby about Mr. Brady? He hasn’t anything to do with Sam or his situation.
Also I’m confused about the dream. Is that a little outlook how the book will end? Why he dreamed that? Are these Sam’s biggest sorrows?

How I as the author would have changed the book:

I think the book is really good. But I would have written that he tells his mother very quickly about the accident. That would be easier for him and for the reader, too. A problem shared is a problem halved. And I wouldn‘t have written that he run to Hastings. I think this scene isn’t consistent to this book. I think it is ok that he run away from home, but I would have written another reaction, run away from home is no good solution.

Images/pictures I like:

• “I dreamed my way through school for the next few weeks. I dreamed my way through life, really. It was all just waiting.”
• “It always felt like a holiday, the time with Alicia, and the holiday would come to an end, and we’d still be girlfriend and boyfriend but we’d have a life as well.”
• “David Backhem and Posh Spice have sex in Brooklyn. And nine months later they have a baby. What’s the word? Brooklyn was somethinged in Brooklyn.”