At once an offbeat love story, a moving portrait of a family in crisis, and a darkly funny American comedy, Kyle Beachy's arresting debut novel-wri...
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Apr 08, 2009
Jason
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(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
So before anything else, please understand that I was rooting from page one for Chicagoan Kyle Beachy's debut novel The Slide to be great; after all, the way I received a copy in the first place was by the author literally bicycling over to my freaking neighborhood a couple of weeks ago a More...
So before anything else, please understand that I was rooting from page one for Chicagoan Kyle Beachy's debut novel The Slide to be great; after all, the way I received a copy in the first place was by the author literally bicycling over to my freaking neighborhood a couple of weeks ago a More...
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Feb 12, 2009
Katherine
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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 post-college transition. To first-time novelist Kyle Beachy, it's the slide: the disorienting time when college has ended and adulthood hovers in the wings, both too close and too far away.
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Bestselling self-help books call it the quarter-life crisis; psychologists call it the post-college transition. To first-time novelist Kyle Beachy, it's the slide: the disorienting time when college has ended and adulthood hovers in the wings, both too close and too far away.
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Sep 11, 2008
Sarah
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In 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 special for the first time, a desire to chase intimacy. Potter Mays is a character familiar enough to believe in, yet distant enough to inspire curiosity. This delicate balance does more than merely
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Jul 24, 2008
margaret
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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 and open hearts of the world - watch out for 2009
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Mar 16, 2009
Nigel
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This is, in many ways, a very standard, traditional coming of age novel about a kid who moves back home the summer after he graduates college. Nothing special there.
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 who's lost and directionless and searching for meaning and significance in his life. But it's another thing entirely when the guy you're reading about is doing all those things RIGHT DOWN THE STREET f More...
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 who's lost and directionless and searching for meaning and significance in his life. But it's another thing entirely when the guy you're reading about is doing all those things RIGHT DOWN THE STREET f More...
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(1 person liked it)
May 12, 2009
Ted
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
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Jun 20, 2011
Katie
rated it:
I can't recommend this book enough -- it was a fast, fun read with many poignant passages. I am shocked that this is a debut novel -- the story is well-crafted and well-told and very original. Easily the best thing I've read in a while...
Jul 04, 2008
Eden
rated it:
Incredible book. Beachy put it on. Funny, enthralling, dark (yes) and hotly well wrote- in the way that makes you want to reread it, quote it, steal lines and pass em off as your own at a party.
You all better pre order right now.
You all better pre order right now.
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Nov 21, 2011
Suzanne
rated it: 
I probably would not have picked up this book to read if I had not sen a preview of it in a local St. Louis magazine, and known he was a local Ladue boy who had written it.
It was kind of fun that it was set in St.Louis and many of the locals, eateries, and businesses were familiar.
Well written, it was a coming of age story about a recebt college graduate trying desperately to deal with the realities of life. He realizes that many things that he thought were solid were not More...
It was kind of fun that it was set in St.Louis and many of the locals, eateries, and businesses were familiar.
Well written, it was a coming of age story about a recebt college graduate trying desperately to deal with the realities of life. He realizes that many things that he thought were solid were not More...
Dec 24, 2010
The Slide is a great novel. It's wonderfully and uniquely descriptive on every page, triggering little recognitions or discoveries. The characters' voices are perfect; he's drawn together a wonderful mix of people who seem eccentric and totally normal at the same time. After being surprised by some turn of events, I would then realize that the event made perfect sense; he had subtly set it up earlier. The characters manage to be hip and cool like modern people, but not in an annoying or ironic o
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May 17, 2010
Amelia
rated it:
I was in St. Louis this week. I visited the Arch and knocked on it as if to determine its quality. I made up a game wherein I have the means to travel to a new city for the sole occasion of reading a novel based in that city. (This game has one round.) For this round I picked The Slide by Kyle Beachy and read the whole thing over the course of two days. It’s an exciting book, full of imaginative bounds and small experiments and other freshness. I had an incredible feeling reading about downtown
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May 10, 2009
Braden
rated it:
A few points regarding this novel:
* 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, as when potter defines "the moral of the summer" for audrey at the end of the book.
* the character of zoe (and that relationship) is underdone.
* all in all, a fairly enjoyabl More...
* 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, as when potter defines "the moral of the summer" for audrey at the end of the book.
* the character of zoe (and that relationship) is underdone.
* all in all, a fairly enjoyabl More...
Mar 03, 2009
Mark
rated it: 
realistically speaking, I thought this was a pretty decent first novel. I'm giving it 2 stars because of failed potential. Beachy introduces a plethora of engaging characters, but the problem is there's a plethora of them. some of the better ones, like Zoe, Potter's "angelic" 16 year-old neighbor, get such little focus that it's difficult to consider them anything less than devices to move the unoriginal plot along. maybe if Potter Mays, Beachy's main character, was half as sympath
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May 31, 2009
Hayley
rated it:
Good, fun, and quick read. Loved reading as a person who is the age of the narrator and as a person who has briefly met the author and would be proud of a Chicago writing wunderkind. Beachy is not a wunderkind, but competent, perhaps a little too influenced by his MFA. His first "story of a post-grad" novel does not shape up to be nearly as good as This Side of Paradise, or The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (and I'm only in the middle of the second). Maybe it's not fair to compare Beachy to
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Sep 18, 2009
Zel
rated it:
what an interesting book. i don't want to compare it to AHWOSG, but it was the same type of 'hmm, i haven't seen that writing style before' and it does take a bit of time to adjust to it. not sure i actually adjusted to it by the end of the book.
it's different in the sense that this isn't a long book, but it isn't a quick read. i went back numerous times to the paragraph i had just read thinking 'huh, i must have dazed out there b/c all of the sudden i'm somewhere and i'm not quit More...
it's different in the sense that this isn't a long book, but it isn't a quick read. i went back numerous times to the paragraph i had just read thinking 'huh, i must have dazed out there b/c all of the sudden i'm somewhere and i'm not quit More...
Jun 05, 2009
Bonnie
rated it:
Twenty-two year-old Potter Mays, the hapless anti-hero of this coming-home-but-not-really debut novel, has a three-month time-out from life to get it together. Three months – originally supposed to be three weeks – till his girlfriend Audrey returns from her own find-herself excursion to Europe. He couldn’t ask for a softer landing. Mom and Dad would like him to stay for a while, and Dad’s Name is enough in this small Midwest town to get him a job.
Squirrels in the attic turn out to s More...
Squirrels in the attic turn out to s More...
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Feb 09, 2010
oriana
rated it:
The Slide is undoubtedly a great book. It hovers somewhat close to a magnificent book, and lots of people obviously think it gets there. But for me it was only almost.
It's a bit hard to explain why I think this is so. I mean, this is a book written to appeal almost directly to me, for one thing. It's practically about me, or at least plenty of people I know. The hero is Potter Mays, upper-middle class disaffected overly smart kid who just graduated college and has (somewhat) sheepis More...
It's a bit hard to explain why I think this is so. I mean, this is a book written to appeal almost directly to me, for one thing. It's practically about me, or at least plenty of people I know. The hero is Potter Mays, upper-middle class disaffected overly smart kid who just graduated college and has (somewhat) sheepis More...
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Sep 04, 2009
Sonia
rated it:
This book is very subtle. It seems like not much is going on with Potter, recent college grad back at home in Missouri, but a lot is going on. He has parents he doesn't feel entirely comfortable around; he has a rich pal; an ex-girlfriend; a temp job; a hot neighbor; a lonely kid whom he befriends; and a dead brother.
Yes, on some level he's trying to figure out himself, but it's not self-conscious. His reflections on what he sees and experiences—some of his descriptions are wit More...
Yes, on some level he's trying to figure out himself, but it's not self-conscious. His reflections on what he sees and experiences—some of his descriptions are wit More...
May 02, 2009
Jason
rated it:
After catching wind of the acclaim regarding Beachy's debut novel, I delved into 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's the notion of the "world view," and how it will affect one's reactions. But I digress prior to even getting started.
Luckily, this book's characters are all memorable, suggesti More...
Luckily, this book's characters are all memorable, suggesti More...
May 05, 2009
Ben
rated it:
Okay, so at first I'm thinking coming-of-age tale, and typical in some ways, drugs, loss, sex, fractured families, and on and on, but good, the Kyle Beachy can definitely write, and then we're thinking, nice, it's also a celebration of St. Louis and the mid-west, and I like that, its different, and again, the Beachy can you know, write, but then like 200 pages in, its something all together different, a story suddenly filled with twists and turns, chaos, violence, and goodness; a story I couldn'
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Feb 16, 2009
Eric
rated it:
Herein lies the essence of St Louis in the summer. The heat, the Cardinals, the Budweiser, the high school gatherings, the pools, the forays into West County and the sympathy for a downtown that has seen better days...and also thoughts on the life of a graduated liberal art student living with his parents.
I'd take more context from the 2001 Cardinals season than Potter Mays's romantic yearnings, but I hear publishers prefer books with wider public appeal.
I'd take more context from the 2001 Cardinals season than Potter Mays's romantic yearnings, but I hear publishers prefer books with wider public appeal.
Jun 16, 2009
Beth
rated it:
I really enjoyed this book. I liked that he wrote about the awkward time between graduation but before you really figure out what to do next. It's an awful time but made for a good plot/conflict. The characters were well done and the story had layers. I like how he interlaced the Audrey story line, felt realistic. I esp. enjoyed his interaction with the kid. It was touching and therapeutic and was a smart way of showing one side of Potter's character. One of my favs this year so far!
Mar 02, 2009
Maggie
rated it:
This book was alright. It waxed dick-lit a few times, but I'll forgive that. His writing style was distracting at times, but not enough to make me put the book down. I kept wondering what the ape-man would do next. The cult winery was a nice touch. I appreciated the St. Louis references...I myself have never been to this Rocket Slide. Have to check it out.
Jul 20, 2009
Beth
rated it:
Interesting.
Strange.
Sad.
I wavered between giving this four stars as, at it's root, it's a devastatingly sad book on death and divorce. But the main character, instead of understanding more about himself, wavers on apathy and self-pity that made me want to slap him about.
Partially well written. Partially confusing.
I will look for future books by the author as I think he has great potential.
Strange.
Sad.
I wavered between giving this four stars as, at it's root, it's a devastatingly sad book on death and divorce. But the main character, instead of understanding more about himself, wavers on apathy and self-pity that made me want to slap him about.
Partially well written. Partially confusing.
I will look for future books by the author as I think he has great potential.
Mar 26, 2009
Lisa
rated it:
I loved most of this book but can't rate it higher than "liked it" because there were some weird parts (talking to a dead brother, for instance). And was it me, but it seemed like there were some error/copy editing errors through the book.
That said: good characters, interesting story line. Perhaps too many characters for this short of a book.
That said: good characters, interesting story line. Perhaps too many characters for this short of a book.
Apr 30, 2009
Jeff
rated it:
My GR friend Jason reviewed this book so positively, I had to have it. I'll start in after I finish the Updike, and hope this doesn't suffer by comparison.
***
Afterward....
Well, it suffered. I was asking for it. I'm trying hard to see why Jason rated it a 10/10.
This book reminded me a fair bit of "White Noise," another "classic" I'm not sufficiently appreciative of. I think I'll just nod knowingly on this one and move along to my next
***
Afterward....
Well, it suffered. I was asking for it. I'm trying hard to see why Jason rated it a 10/10.
This book reminded me a fair bit of "White Noise," another "classic" I'm not sufficiently appreciative of. I think I'll just nod knowingly on this one and move along to my next
Jun 06, 2011
Daryl
rated it:
Based on responses from some whose opinions I respect very much, I really wanted to love this book. Unfortunately, it just didn't float my boat all that much. It was a fine book with some very fine writing in it. At his lyrical best, Beachy is a very solid writer. But on the whole, I just felt sort of meh about the story and lacked the sense of place that seems to make the book appeal to many reviewers.
I do find myself wondering if this isn't a book that appeals to a younger audience More...
I do find myself wondering if this isn't a book that appeals to a younger audience More...
Jun 18, 2009
Colleen
rated it:
i found it quite easy to tear myself away from this book. i read most of it during jury duty without other options for reading material. none of the characters were likeable or very well developed. it could have been more than it was, but it wasn't.
Dec 05, 2009
Tyler
rated it:
The Slide is a terrific debut novel. A middle American coming-of-age story with a dark sense of humor, not unlike The Graduate for the 21st century. Beachy is an incredible sentence-level writer and this is a fast-paced page-turner of a read.
Jun 13, 2010
Caitlin
rated it:
An amazing read! I read this mid-semester and it was break from my thesis. It reads quick, but is by no means vapid. The perfect companion for the morning L commute, The Slide sucks you into its mysterious world known as St. Louis.
