Published by Harper Perennial on April 23, 2013
In its penetrating exploration of a suburban couple in an aging marriage, The Slippage seems like a book Jim Harrison would write if Harrison used commas. Like Harrison, Ben Greenman laces his novel with wry humor and editorial observations. For instance: “Mystery was for people whose desire to make life better outweighed their fear that it might become worse.”
The Slippage opens with a party, hosted by William and Louisa for Louisa’s brother Tom, who becomes embarrassingly drunk while Louisa hides from her guests. William and Louisa are both suffocating in their marriage. Louisa deals with it by buying real estate and lobbying William to build a new house. William “had put the paddles to his slowly dying heart” a year earlier in the usual way, but now the object of his infidelity is moving into his neighborhood, making neighborhood parties even more awkward than usual.
Tom makes art from graphs (some of which end in a fiery crash). He’s the novel’s philosopher. When William confesses about a dramatic moment at work that he’s keeping hidden from Louisa, Tom tells him that people “receive one stimulus and produce another, and eventually it all adds up to life, or what people call life.” Nothing can be planned; it just happens. The slippage, according to Tom, is “the moment when you start to lose your footing.” Nearly every character in the novel seems to be on the verge of experiencing the slippage. When William has a philosophical moment of his own, he realizes that there’s too much to existence; William can’t get a grasp on even “a miniscule portion” of it. He’d like to exist as unconscious matter, like a sidewalk. William isn’t really participating in life; things happen and he goes with the flow, but seems powerless to direct it.
Greenman captures his characters with a few choice words. Louisa is “a thick gray brush overpainting all other colors.” A new salesman in William’s office is “the kind of man who looked at a spot before he sat down in it.” The Slippage is written without wasted words, but Greenman fills it with images that manage to be understated and powerful at the same time.
In part, The Slippage is about male bonding (Tom and William) and the erosion of the bond between a man and his wife. To a greater extent, The Slippage is about the question “Why?” Why do people act behave they do -- irrationally, impulsively, destructively? As Louisa asks, “Are there ever real reasons?” The novel ends shortly after a startling, disturbing moment in their lives -- another dramatic event that is beyond William’s control -- quickly followed by still another revelation that alters William’s perspective of his life. Maybe Greenman's point in this thought-provoking novel -- as Louisa speculates -- is that we do the unexpected to prove we’re alive, to convince ourselves that we’re casting a shadow.
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