A blow to the head
E-book, Czech
A blow to the head
Boxing as a Mirror of Adolescence
Rita Bullwinkel's debut novel, Headshot, follows the stories of eight young female boxers who have travelled from different corners of the United States to Reno, Nevada, for a two-day junior boxing championship. Each chapter of the novel captures a single match, from the quarter-finals to the unexpectedly cast final. The girls' pasts intertwine with their futures in the narrative—and the intersection is always the boxing match at hand. Thanks to the author's exceptionally precise language, refined narrative style, and centrifugal imagination, the depiction of the merciless boxing contest gradually transforms into a powerful allegory about girls on the cusp of adulthood and their struggles with the world around them.
While reading the novel, it's easy to understand why it has generated such critical and reader enthusiasm—and one willingly agrees with reviewers who, among other things, declare that "Bullwinkel’s novel is immensely powerful and fresh; whatever the author turns her attention to literally lights up" (New York Times); that it is "an elegant meditation on physical struggle... imbued with metaphors and refined images that poetically freeze time in every scene: a lot can fit into the eight two-minute rounds of a boxing match" (Washington Post); that Headshot is "brilliant, unpredictable prose" (San Francisco Chronicle), which is "unlike any other, yet it works perfectly and leaves an indelible impression on us" (Guardian).
Rita Bullwinkel
Rita Bullwinkel (born 1988) is an American writer. She garnered considerable attention from both readers and literary critics with her prose debut, a collection of short stories titled Belly Up (2018), which was honoured with the prestigious Whiting Award for emerging writers. Her first novel, Headshot (2024), then catapulted her among the most acclaimed authors of the younger generation. In addition to her own writing, Rita Bullwinkel teaches creative writing at the University of San Francisco and works as an editor for the influential literary magazine McSweeney’s Quarterly.
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