false 3495748 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 3495748 1 3537357 27 1 2009 The Slide: A Novel total:161|5:36|4:50|3:50|2:23|1:2| 161 578 342 43 1474889 3.59 161 43 44695416 147289 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 5 10 false Wed Apr 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jan 28 16:45:21 -0800 2009 Wed Apr 08 15:20:37 -0700 2009
So before anything else, please understand that I was rooting from page one for Chicagoan...more...]]> 46031457 1100084 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 4 3 false Tue Feb 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 08:48:09 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 12:40:33 -0800 2009 Note: I wrote this review for publication, but it got killed (editor had double-booked reviews of the same title by accident). That's why it sounds a little more formal than the GR standard. But enjoy!

Bestselling self-help books call it the quarter-life crisis; psychologists call it the ...more...]]> 26816087 307210 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 5 3 false Tue Sep 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 09 20:17:28 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 11 19:26:24 -0700 2008 The Slide, Kyle Beachy composes a narrative that produces the reading experience I search for in a novel. By the end of the first chapter, one feels a sense of longing. Unlike the motivated reading inspired by mystery or suspense, The Slide encourages the longing one feels upon meeting someone ...more...]]> 28157605 55828 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 5 3 false Thu Jul 24 08:44:02 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 24 09:11:07 -0700 2008 the book is good, and it is funny, and it is sad, and it is (oh god dare I say it ) heartwarming and if you don't know kyle already it is probably going to make you fall in love with him, which was probably the (not so secret) reason he wrote the book in the first place - so watch out, young ...more...]]> 49500497 924255 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 5 1 false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 16 17:25:16 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 17:35:08 -0700 2009
But it's set in St. Louis, and that REALLY affects things. Like.. it's one thing to read a novel about a guy in his 20s w...more...]]> 52076184 214910 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 0 0 false Thu Apr 09 10:37:18 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 10:47:11 -0700 2009
But then I read this review on CCLaP and decided to give it another sh...more...]]> 55796312 293532 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 1 0 true Sun May 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 08:48:53 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 08:48:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 26308073 271354 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 5 1 false Fri Jul 04 12:35:24 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 04 12:40:26 -0700 2008
You all better pre order right now.]]> 55611979 602126 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 3 0 false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 17:28:22 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 17:28:22 -0700 2009 * enjoyed the St. Louis references & admire Beachy's attempts to capture the sociological particularities of the place, although there was not enough tension between stereotype and reality for my taste.
* some nice stretches of prose. but some gaggy bits...more...]]> 46629113 1243944 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 2 0 false Mon Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 08:21:33 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 17:31:57 -0800 2009 more...]]> 54687574 760282 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 2 0 false Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 02 08:07:47 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 13:08:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 61749805 180180 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 4 0 false Wed Jul 01 07:22:42 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 13:56:36 -0700 2009
it's different in the sense that this is...more...]]> 52906329 1424859 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 4 10 false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 10:18:28 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 05 11:32:03 -0700 2009 more...]]> 52069814 455200 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 4 0 false Thu Sep 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 09:43:56 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 11:57:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 46481622 983325 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 3 0 false Sat May 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Feb 15 21:18:50 -0800 2009 Sat May 02 23:11:08 -0700 2009 The Slide with high expectations. And yes, I may have shot myself in the foot, but it's nearly impossible to read a book, see a movie, or play a video game without hearing other opinions about it beforehand. Then there'...more...]]> 71173063 208313 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 3 0 false Mon Sep 14 08:31:49 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 02 08:20:11 -0800 2009 more...]]> 53572103 175742 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 4 1 false Wed Apr 22 06:06:56 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 19:16:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 46515801 1553970 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 4 0 false Mon Feb 16 09:03:50 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 09:23:01 -0800 2009 more...]]> 58279864 1063286 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 4 0 false Tue Jun 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 07:30:11 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 10:41:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 47323938 245098 3495748 0385341857 9780385341851 43 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226605652m/3495748.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3495748.The_Slide_A_Novel 3.59 161 --Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class and Jenny and the Jaws of Life

"Suspenseful, erotic, funny, and terribly sad, THE SLIDE presents the long, hot 22nd summer of Potter Mays, the most ethical sexual deviant this side of Portnoy--or Hamlet."
-- James McManus, New York Times bestselling author of Positively Fifth Street

"With THE SLIDE Kyle Beachy turns the coming-of-age story on its ear. But THE SLIDE is about a lot more than a young man's increasingly frantic efforts to figure himself out. There's the decay of both the American city and the American nuclear family, the painful inevitability of friends and lovers growing apart, and the ongoing difficulty of denying one's base appetites. Plus baseball. Lots of baseball. What's most impressive, though, is that Beachy has emerged in his debut as a fully-formed stylist. His writing is propulsive, unique without being forced, and eminently readable."
-- Ron Currie Jr., author of God is Dead

"Refreshingly sincere." -- Joe Meno, author of The Great Perhaps

"Kyle Beachy has written a knockout first novel. Part love letter to the American Midwest, part ghost story, and part heartbreaking tale of one young man's struggle to find forgiveness as well as himself, this is a book that
you won't want to miss."
-- Cristina Henriquez, author of Come Together, Fall Apart

"Beachy has a wry wit, a wily sense of the ridiculous, and an athletic gift for description. Consequently, frissons of weirdness steer this tale of lateonset maturity in unexpected directions as Potter takes a crummy job delivering bottled water, concerns himself inappropriately with a lonely boy in a catastrophically messy house and the 16-year-old girl next door, talks to the ghost of his long-dead brother, and is badly manipulated by the worst friend a hapless guy could have. Even his passion for baseball fails to halt his slide into the morass. Beachy perfectly captures the brain-fogging mugginess of summer in the Midwest and the quarry-deep reticence of midwesterners in a funny and endearing novel about a bumbling guy who makes bad situations worse with the best of intentions."
-- Booklist

"[THE SLIDE] is at once hilarious, strange and uncomfortable...Beachy’s characters, infinitely fallible, are real and fleshy, and their loneliness is palpable."
-- Publishers Weekly]]> 3 0 false Mon Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 23 19:01:13 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 19:23:18 -0800 2009 more...]]> 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=3495748