The Slip: A Novel by Lucas Schaefer

I had a complicated relationship with The Slip. I started it and didn’t like it. Then the plot thickened and I found myself genuinely intrigued. By the final hundred pages, though, it felt like a chore.

A boxing novel that didn't pack as much of a punch as I was hoping for

The premise is undeniably compelling. Sixteen-year-old Nathaniel Rothstein, a Jewish kid uncomfortable in his own skin, is sent from Boston to Austin for the summer. Under the watch of his uncle Bob and the mentorship of a Haitian-born former fighter at a boxing gym, he begins to transform — physically, emotionally, even spiritually. Then he vanishes without a trace. A coming-of-age story morphs into a mystery.

Meanwhile, there is “X,” a teenager wrestling with gender identity, forging connection through a phone sex hotline where both participants are pretending to be someone else. Ten years later, Uncle Bob begins his own investigation into Nathaniel’s disappearance. On paper, it sounds good: identity, reinvention, race, masculinity, family.

But for me, the novel was a slog. At over 500 pages, it kept expanding with side characters, digressions, and shifting timelines that diluted out the core of the book. The boxing world, which others may find to be a good backdrop for a story, has never been my cup of tea, so I kinda knew what I was getting into, but I did go in with an open mind. I wouldn’t have minded the boxing scenario if the story had just tightened its focus and played off the strength of its central mystery. I wanted something leaner, the concise novel hiding inside this very large one. Not a failure, exactly. It just never quite landed for me.