Sunday You Learn How to Box

Growing up in urban Connecticut's impoverished Stratfield Projects in the late '60s is hard enough for Louis Bowman, the 14-year-old narrator of this excellent, plainspoken debut novel: he's got a misguided mother who is by turns violent and vulnerable; a stepfather who both hates and ignores him; and an array of neighborhood bullies to dodge. To make matters more difficult, Louis is gay, a realization he comes to slowly as he becomes enthralled with Ray Anthony Robinson, an older boy his neighbors consider an ""out-and-out-hoodlum."" Enigmatic Ray becomes Louis's unofficial protector, though the two teens never speak of their bond. Louis's home life, meanwhile, becomes increasingly brutal and confusing. His mother, Jeannette, engineers Sunday boxing matches between Louis and his stepfather, Ben, hoping Louis will learn to protect himself from the other boys in the projects. Ben, however, uses the matches as an opportunity to knock Louis around the apartment. Jeannette dreams of owning a house outside the projects, but drinks a lot of scotch and often loses herself in the memory of her one brush with fame, years before, when she designed a dress for Billie Holiday. Louis is a likable na f, a boy for whom a simple nod indicates a world of acceptance. He is keenly aware of how racial discrimination affects him; when his teacher insists on calling him Louie, he notes: ""Mom says white people always do that with a black person's name, change it to something that sounds like nobody could take the person seriously."" Wright's prose is both straightforward and subtle, and his ear for dialogue is first-rate. Louis is a winning character, an adolescent coping gracefully with his bitter lot, whose emotional strength and resilience ensure his survival into adulthood. (Feb.)