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A Novel
by Lucas Schaefer
Book Reviewed by:For readers of Jonathan Franzen and Nathan Hill comes a haymaker of an American novel about a missing teenage boy, cases of fluid and mistaken identity, and the transformative power of boxing.
Austin, Texas: It's the summer of 1998, and there's a new face on the scene at Terry Tucker's Boxing Gym. Sixteen-year-old Nathaniel Rothstein has never felt comfortable in his own skin, but under the tutelage of a swaggering, Haitian-born ex-fighter named David Dalice, he begins to come into his own. Even the boy's slightly stoned uncle, Bob Alexander, who is supposed to be watching him for the summer, notices the change. Nathaniel is happier, more confident—tanner, even. Then one night he vanishes, leaving little trace behind.
Across the city, Charles Rex, now going simply by "X," has been undergoing a teenage transformation of his own, trolling the phone sex hotline that his mother works, seeking an outlet for everything that feels wrong about his body, looking for intimacy and acceptance in a culture that denies him both. As a surprising and unlikely romance blooms, X feels, for a moment, like he might have found the safety he's been searching for. But it's never that simple.
More than a decade later, Nathaniel's uncle Bob receives a shocking tip, propelling him to open his own investigation into his nephew's disappearance. The resulting search involves gymgoers past and present, including a down-on-his-luck twin and his opportunistic brother; a rookie cop determined to prove herself; and Alexis Cepeda, a promising lightweight, who crossed the US-Mexico border when he was only fourteen, carrying with him a license bearing the wrong name and face.
Bobbing and weaving across the ever-shifting canvas of a changing country, The Slip is an audacious, daring look at sex and race in America that builds to an unforgettable collision in the center of the ring.
1. Tomato Can Tomato Can
Let me tell you something," said David Dalice, twenty-seven years in Texas from "the baddest shanty in all of Haiti" and Director of Hospitality at the Shoal Creek Rehabilitation Center. "To get to your woman's heart, you get down between those legs, stick your tongue in deep deep deep, and get as close to that pulsing organ as you possibly can."
David offered this lesson as he led his newest trainee on morning rounds. It was a standard part of the How to Please Your Woman seminar he'd been presenting to his teenage male underlings for decades. The year was 1998, the city Austin, the floor Assisted Living. The trainee was Nathaniel Rothstein, and this was his first day on the job.
The job, a volunteer position, was to assist David in making Shoal Creek—a "luxury eldercare community," according to the brochure—feel like home to its residents. As Director of Hospitality, David was responsible for the happiness of all of them—from the still-with-it ...
Kirkus finalists announced!
...here's one I don't have to read!") Not so this year. The winners are: Fiction: https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/5027/the-slip The Slip by Lucas Schaefer Nonfiction: King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson Young Readers' Lit:...
-kim.kovacs
What books have you enjoyed so far in 2025, what books are you looking forward to reading?
...Black Black in Blues by Imani Perry Freedom is a Feast by Alejandro Puyana The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni 4.5⭐️ The Power Broker by Robert Caro The Slip by Lucas Schaefer Spell Freedom by Elaine Weiss Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis On the Calculation of Volume #1 by Solvej Balle There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif S...
-Anne_Glasgow
Terry Tucker's Boxing Gym acts as the central link among the characters and their storylines. The gym draws a diverse array of individuals, including academics, police officers, amateur boxers, high school students, housewives, and trainers, all seeking transformation in the fitting setting of Austin—a city known for its constant evolution. One of my favorite aspects of Schaefer's book is watching how every character's storyline interweaves with the others. This keeps you on your toes, making the reading experience engaging. The direction of the narrative consistently defied my expectations ("Stories that start as one thing sometimes become another"), and as Schaefer's novel travels from 2008 to 1998 to show the summer through the eyes of each character, each serves a role and unlocks a new puzzle piece of Nathaniel's disappearance...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Letitia Asare).
Alexander Chee, bestselling author of The Queen of the Night
A fascinating novel full of so much life. Lucas Schaefer takes a lapidary eye to these characters and Austin, holding them up to the light and tracing stories only he could tell. I can't think of another writer like this except maybe Márquez, though I think The Slip is bawdier than his work—and thus, a novel he might have loved. Oscar Cásares, author of Where We Come From
Epic in scope and yet so intimate in detail, The Slip is outrageous, tender, and supremely fun to read. Lucas Schaefer's characters are lost in a funhouse of mirrors, each experiencing a transformation from who we thought they were, each worthy of our love. Parini Shroff, nationally bestselling author of The Bandit Queens
At once raunchy and tender, dipping into deep pools of hilarity and humanity, Schaefer's debut is certain to kindle long overdue conversations about race, privilege and what 'us' means and should mean in America. This novel bursts with fully-fleshed characters, each a knockout, who will stay with you long after the last, fiery page.
A central element of The Slip by Lucas Schaefer is Terry Tucker's Boxing Gym in Austin, Texas, which serves as a hub connecting the story's characters. The gym, attracting individuals from diverse backgrounds, illustrates a universal appeal: boxing is a sport that can be found in every city across the nation and in many countries worldwide. As one character notes, "you can find it down an alley and up a creaky staircase in Tokyo; in church basements in Belfast and Boston; through unmarked doors of crumbling buildings in Philadelphia, Fortaleza, Rawalpindi, and Rome. On east sides and outskirts."
The roots of boxing can be traced back to ancient Greece, where it became popular as an Olympic sport. Boxing was originally simpler ...
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