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The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds (review)

Matt’s mother was the center of Matt’s heart and the family home; with her passing, nothing seems real or important anymore, and Matt’s father seems to be falling apart. When Matt’s work-study job falls through and Mr. Ray, his neighbor and the director of the local funeral home, offers him a job, he’s skeptical at first, then surprised and a little creeped out when he finds comfort sitting in on the funerals of complete strangers. He eventually realizes that it’s only at funerals where he can find someone who really understands how he feels; watching the reactions of those closest to the deceased provides the confirmation he needs to validate his emotions. When his father is hit by a car, Matt becomes even closer to Mr. Ray, but when Love, a girl that he has been crushing on from afar, stands up at her grandmother’s funeral, he finally opens his heart and begins to heal. Reynolds has a fantastic ear for the easy, lyrical expressions and idioms of his characters, and his genuine love for the African-American Bed-Stuy community is palpable. Matt’s introduction to funeral culture is at times predictably heartbreaking, but at other times it’s just hilarious, giving a sense of the range of experience. As Love takes him into her world, serving at a homeless shelter and wandering through the Botanical Gardens, the story takes on a subtly realized shape that gives the realism weight and texture. Reynolds’ work here makes him a fine heir to the Walter Dean Myers tradition of loving storytelling that captures the heart and humor of multigenerational black urban experience. KC