Sunday You Learn How to Box A Novel [Paperback]

Fourteen-year-old Louis Bowman is in a boxing ring -- a housing project circa 1968 -- fighting just to get to the end of the round. Sharing the ring is his mother, Jeanette Stamps, a ferociously stubborn woman battling for her own dreams to be realized; his stepfather, Ben Stamps, the would-be savior, who becomes the sparring partner to them both; and the enigmatic Ray Anthony Robinson, the neighborhood hoodlum, in purple polyester pants, who sets young Louis's heart spinning with the first stirrings of sexual longing. Bil Wright deftly evokes an unrelenting world with quirky humor and clear-eyed unsentimentality.E. Lynn HarrisThe New York Timesbestselling author ofAbide with MeHeartbreaking and heartwarming. I was touched in so many ways by this absolutely dazzling and elegant debut. You won't be able to put it down.Judy LightfootSeattle TimesThe patient, subtle rendering of one boy's developing emotional life leads us right into the mystery of how love grows in us all.New York WorldWith striking immediacy, keen insight, and grace of language, Wright captures the anguish of adolescence and the complex bond between mothers and sons...riveting.Chase MadarThe New York TimesUnderstated humor marks Bil Wright's first novel,Sunday You Learn How to Box...the absence of sentimentality is refreshing.The Philadelphia TribuneA realistic, poignant story. It grabs you from the beginning, digs at your heartstrings, and doesn't let go.Karin Cook author ofWhat Girls LearnSunday You Learn How to Boxhas all the rhythm, drama, and dance of a good fight but in this case the battle matters more because the soul of a boy is at stake. In elegant and agile prose, Wright matches brutality with passion and heartbreak with hope. And a man in purple polyester pants walks off with the prize. This book is a knockout.Gerry Gomez Pearlberg author ofMarianne Fauthfull's Cigaretteand editor ofQueer Dog: Homo/Pub/Poetryl§