Don't Skip Out on Me

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By Willy Vlautin
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2 reviews
Meet Horace Hopper, a twenty-one-year-old farm hand in Tonopah, Nevada, who works for Mr Reece and his wife, the nearest thing he’s had to family in years.
But Horace, half-white half-Paiute Indian, dreams of bigger things. Leaving behind the farm and its fragile stability, he heads South to re-invent himself as the Mexican boxer Hector Hidalgo. Slowly, painfully, the possibility emerges that his dreams might not just be the delusions of a lost soul. but at what cost, and what of those he’s left behind?
Exploring the fringes of contemporary America, Don’t Skip Out on Me is an extraordinary work of compassion – a novel about the need for human connection and understanding – and essential reading, now more than ever.
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Macclesfield Library Reading Group
Don’t Skip Out On Me was our book for January and despite some members having reservations initially at the thought of a book to do with boxing this was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Many felt very engaged with the characters and found themselves emotionally involved to the point of tears, a new favourite book for more than one member of our group. Here are some of our thoughts. “A wonderful novel. The main characters are so plausible that I cried at the ending because I had been so drawn into their lives. A study of loneliness and also inevitability.” “Very engaging. I...
Read more...Horace wants to be a boxer. But more than that, Horace needs to succeed at being a boxer in order to prove to both himself and to those around him that he is “somebody”. Or so he thinks. After a troubled childhood, Horace ends up as a farm hand in Nevada. He lives and works with Mr and Mrs Reese who treat him like a son and he finally has the closest thing to a family that he has ever known. But Horace, half-white and half-Indian, is determined to reinvent himself as a Mexican boxer. He duly leaves his home...
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