Wright tells the poignant tale of Louis' battles with his alcoholic mother and with his violent stepfather - both ending tragically, making it all seem starkly realistic. Wright's simplistic writing takes his readers into the mind of a young teen-ager, exposing emotions and urges.

In this, Wright's first novel, he gets to the heart of his story while giving minute details, heightening the tension of the tale.

Amidst the turmoil of his family, Louis is fighting his own battle to win the attention and affection of the neighborhood hoodlum, Ray Anthony Robinson.

Wright begins the story of Louis in medias res - in the middle of things.

The first startling sentence reveals that Louis' stepfather Ben has died. After grim and gory details about the police and on-looking neighbors, Wright takes the reader back to the beginning.

Louis and his mother are living in the projects with aspirations of getting out. She works days at Saks Fifth Avenue and evenings cleaning offices in order to save money. Marrying Ben becomes part of her grand scheme to move her life somewhere better.

After his mother marries, Louis watches his family's money situation worsen. His mom gets pregnant and Ben treats him horribly, calling him a sissy and hitting him.

The only sweet times in Louis' life are Saturdays after he and his mom have cleaned the floors. His mom sends him to the store for scotch, which she drinks while he has soda.

The more alcohol his mother consumes, the more willing she becomes to tell Louis about his real father and about her life back in Harlem when she was younger. Louis loves to listen to his mother's Billie Holiday records while his mother tells him about the time she met the singer and designed some clothes for her.

One Christmas Louis' mother buys him a red bike for Christmas. She insists that Louis go right outside and teach himself how to ride, despite the snow and ice on the ground. Louis falls off many times and the neighborhood boys mock him. Ben comes out to help teach him how to ride and he ends up making fun of Louis, too.

It turns out that sexy Ray Anthony Robinson is the only man who can motivate Louis to learn to ride his bike. His disarming sex appeal convinces Louis that bike-riding is worthwhile.

Louis' mother and Ben decide to teach Louis how to box so he can defend himself. Every Sunday Ben and Louis fight each other in the living room and every Sunday, Louis loses the fight.

The only ray of light in Louis' life is his occasional spotting of Robinson. As his infatuation with the man grows, Louis actually gets up the courage to talk to and befriend him. He even calls him on the telephone after a fluke meeting on the subway leads to Robinson giving Louis his telephone number.

In his living room, Louis fights a losing battle. But Robinson, described almost comically in his purple, polyester pants proves to be the man in the corner of the ring giving him motivation to keep fighting.

In a note at the end of the book, Wright says his goal in writing Sunday you Learn How to Box was to provide people with HIV and AIDS a story they could relate to. Wright teaches people with AIDS to help improve their reading skills and it were his students who convinced him of the lack of available books targeted at them.

Wright succeeds in creating a simple story that can reach his audience, move his audience, and touch many others, regardless of their connection to AIDS or the gay community.


Honest, Vivid, and All-Too-Real   March 2, 2004
From characters whose every words ring true, to the deep longing of adolescent love, Wright has crafted a remarkable novel full of memorable individuals and situation. Part coming-of-age and part slice-of-life, Sundays offers much to young readers as well as those of us who lived these feelings decades ago. If this first novel is an indication of Wright's ability to develop strong characters and tell real stories, E. Lynn Harris ought to watch his back.


an invitation into a sad, unique life   July 5, 2002
What is most interesting about Wright's boxing motif is that the main character's abuse is more or less what leads to his liberation. Despite his mothers' generally selfish motivations and his step-father's brutality, Louis Bowman's story is one of triumph. The most poignant part of Wright's story are the places where the young narrator gives us the briefest glimpses of friendship between him and his mother, and how few these moments were. Minor characters such as a racist schoolteacher and a pedophile businessman are well drawn. I wouldn't expect much cross over from fans of E. Lynn Harris or James Earl Hardy, the two most prominent writers of gay African-American fiction, as their writing tends to be a lot more gossipy and soap-operatic. Wright's work is a fair amount more literary, and would probably appeal more to fans of Edwidge Danticat's "Breath, Eyes, Memory." From the perspective of someone who is more or less caucasian, this book opens up a whole new world of gay experience that went unexplored in classics such as A Boy's Own Story and The Best Little Boy In The World. Certainly worth the price of admission.