The Boy in the Black Suit

The storytelling motif appears throughout the novel as a vehicle for revealing backstory, foreshadowing, coincidences, and ironies. In this way, it supports the theme of “Ironies and Coincidences That Teach Life’s Lessons.” Within Matt’s interior monologue, for example, he tells the story of his mother’s decline and death in the hospital. He also tells the story, flashback-style, of the sleepover night at Chris’s when they peeked out the door in time to witness the gunshot. Matt recalls his mother telling the story of getting Matt’s father to quit drinking before she would marry him.

Other characters serve as storytellers as well. Mr. Ray uses storytelling to reveal his early life history to Matt in his basement “pain room.” In the homeless shelter, Candy Man describes for Matt how Love behaved when she was little; this reveals character details indirectly about both Candy Man (evidence that he has been at the homeless shelter for a long time) and Love (she was strong and confident as a young girl). Candy Man tells multiple stories about Love, enjoying himself in the telling:

The first one was about how Lovey would growl at boys, like a wolf or something. That one was funny. And the second one, Candy Man was laughing so hard couldn’t understand what he was talking about, but I know it had something to do with boogers (195).

Candy Man’s stories about Love provide a lighthearted, nostalgic tone Matt feels in the shelter on Thanksgiving Day; ironically, though, Matt realizes later that Candy Man holds his memories of Love dear because he has little else in his life. The somber tone Love’s story sets the next day when she tells Matt about her mother’s death on Valentine’s Day juxtaposes with the mood Matt feels hearing Candy Man’s stories; he feels her trauma as well as a sense of disbelief at the coincidence, as he partially witnessed the violence that night.

Food appears as a repeated motif throughout the book, symbolizing sustenance and survival. Despite their deep grief, Matt and his father must eat, relying on take-out to get them through the early weeks after losing Matt’s mother. Matt tries briefly to look at the recipe booklet his mother prepared for him in advance of her death, but because cooking was time they shared together, he is too mournful to use it for months. Matt’s mother’s voice and personality come across in the chosen recipes and the way in which she writes the food instructions. Matt turns to the Cluck Bucket in hopes of a job but accepts a position with Mr. Ray instead setting up and helping with funerals. Part of this work involves setting up for the repast, a meal of fellowship following a funeral that symbolizes how the living must go one surviving after a loved one’s passing. Matt and his father recall sadly the extravagant Thanksgiving meal Matt’s mother prepared each year. Matt uses his skills learned at funeral set-up to help heat and serve the meal at the shelter on Thanksgiving Day.