Richard Lord’s Boxing Gym, on North Lamar Boulevard, in Austin, might not seem like the setting for a Great American Novel. The humble, haphazardly painted facade shares a tiny parking lot with an auto-parts shop. The 1974 sign from the original location, on East Sixth Street, leans against a fence, disintegrating in the sun. Inside, the gym is devoid of frills and is as beat-up as one of Muhammad Ali’s old leather boxing gloves. It’s a testament to author Lucas Schaefer’s ability to capture nuance and detail that this establishment, which inspired his rollicking, audacious first novel, The Slip , looks exactly as I imagined it when I read the book.

“I’ve always been interested in spaces where people who are not usually put together are thrust together, whether that’s because of racial

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