BookLife Review: Headshot, A Novel (Rita Bullwinkel, author) by Carol O’Day

Contemporary fiction, lBooker Prize nominee, NY Times Notable Books of 2024, women’s youth boxing, Reno, NV, coming of age, competition, motivation, ambition, talent, yearning

Rita Bullwinkel’s debut novel, Headshot, takes place in Reno, Nevada over the course of a two-day women’s youth boxing championship tournament. It is structured with one match per chapter, beginning with the four quarter-final bouts, then the two semi-final and culminating with the final championship match The reader meets the eight young women who come to Reno to compete and learns, over the course of the seven match-ups, each boxer’s personality, motivation for competing and style of boxing.

Bullwinkel pulls back the curtain on this lesser known arena of youth sports and draws a rich picture of the young women who are drawn to it. They occupy a wide range of personalities and talents. The women regularly compete in virtually spectatorless rings, in dim gyms, in marginal locations, and for little recognition or reward. The sport is antithetical to social norms of femininity, even in a Title IX era. It is a sport in which young women actively seek to land hits on each other’s person, with points awarded for the hits that strike and bruise the most vulnerable, damaging and dangerous areas of the body. Yes, their gloves are checked for lead to minimize the risk of lethal blows, and they do wear gloves and headgear. Nonetheless, participation is harsh and bruises, broken bones and injuries are frequent

The young boxers are both alike and diverse. Most are loners or young women who do not fit typical social norms that would render them popular in high school. They are stocky and muscular, or gangly and sinewy, one has a prominent facial birthmark, several are from tiny hometowns with limited opportunities for female athletes, many are from families with limited financial means, one is deeply religious, another is haunted an accidental drawing that occurred on her lifeguard shift. Bullwinkel places the reader inside the minds of each of the boxers during their matches. The chapters oscillate between the two boxers’ points of view. One ruminates over a past tragedy. One counts and recites the digits of Pi. Another imagines a beloved water fountain light show, and still another imagines victory and hometown recognition. Bullwinkel’s writing is vivid. In between hits and dodges, she weaves in meaningful boxing details—referress checking gloves checked for lead pre-match, each boxer’s observations about an opponent’s stance, balance, body type, power, breathing patterns, sounds emitted, and unguarded targets on their bodies. Without exposition and through the eyes of the boxers, we see the gym’s dirty skylights, filtering airborne dust, the faded ropes of the ring, and the minuscule number of folded chairs holding spectators and a single journalist. She sketches the car trips that brought the boxers great distances with parents or coaches to participate in the tournament and the dingy hotel rooms (or cars) where they sleep the night before and between matches.

As the novel unfolds, Bullwinkel adeptly differentiates between the eight boxers —distinguishing them by their aptitude for boxing, their body types, training levels, discipline and drive. In the early matches, pure talent and power can advance a boxer, but as in most sports, as competitors approach the elite levels, the championship rounds, all the stars and factors must align to climb to the top of the podium. Not only must the boxer possess the physical skills to dominate an opponent (strength, foot speed, balance and quickness) but she must also have a mental toughness and drive that carry her to the top. There is an intangible quality, a unique synthesis of the physical, spiritual and mental gifts, that collide in the body and soul of a champion in perfect harmony. Bullwinkel allows the reader to witness as some competitors realize that their talent or their drive is not enough, or that they no longer have (or perhaps never did have) an burning internal desire to win or to even to continue competing. She softens to blow of these outcomes by sketching futures for each of the boxers. One becomes a wedding planner. Another builds her own home. Another becomes an accountant but opens a training gym with her husband to recapture her passion for fitness. Some futures are grim, however realistic they may be, but like the talent levels and personalities of each boxer, the range is fitting.

Headshot is a slim novel, only 207 pages. It is a great book for a book group, to share with a female athlete, or the parent or grandparent of one, for anyone who has coached youth sports or for those interested in the development and psyche of young women.

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