The setting of Shadow Boxer is established subtlety and sparely. Though the story is set in or around Boston, the name of that city is never mentioned. Readers must piece together clues within the text to determine the novel's location—an interesting device that parallels the structure of this book in which readers are also required to piece together a variety of interrelated vignettes to gain an understanding of the entire plot.

The first clues can be found in chapter 1, "Groundwork," in which George and his young brother Monty visit Mount Calvary Cemetery. As George points out different sections of the cemetery, he mentions that playwright Eugene O'Neill and actor Ray Bolger are buried there. Both men are Massachusetts natives—O'Neill was born in Boston, Bolger in nearby Dorchester—so Boston seems a likely burial spot for them (though internet sources have Ray Bolger interred...