Rita Bullwinkel’s novel, “Headshot,” takes us into Bob’s Boxing Palace in Reno, Nevada, where eight teenage girls are about to compete in the 12th Annual Daughters of America Cup. You might be thinking a novel about teenage girl boxers isn’t on your 2024 reading bingo card — and if so, I humbly implore you to think again and give it a go.
Because this book is fantastic. We meet the eight competitors on a bracket at the start of the novel, and what follows is a chapter-by-chapter, fight-by-fight account of one fierce weekend that digs deeply into the backgrounds and psyches of the boxers. Each has her own personal reasons for boxing.
One is processing a tragic accident that happened on her watch. Another wants to dethrone an older family member. One appreciates the brutal beauty of the sport while recalling and chanting digits of pi. Another wears a coon-skin hat outside the ring and screams animal sounds to throw off her rivals. All of them make sacrifices for their sport and wonder what they’re really fighting for.
Bullwinkel writes with a ferocity that matches the subject matter, with quick jabs and roundhouse punches. Oddly, there’s no dialogue here. Each bout is recounted by an omnipotent narrator that burrows inside each character’s soul, describing where they’ve been and hinting at where they’re going. All the while, we experience the choreography of the boxing match. The result is crisp, lyrical, almost poetic.
It’s not often you finish a book and think, “Wow, that was a completely unique reading experience.” But “Headshot” is that novel — one of a kind in subject matter, character, structure and prose. An absolute knockout.
