'Twenty-Four Seconds from Now' is a love story for Black boys–and everyone else, too

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4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Earlier this month, novelist and poet Jason Reynolds received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation for his work "depicting the rich inner lives of kids of color." The latest example of that work is Twenty-Four Seconds from Now..., Reynolds' new young adult novel. The book follows a young Black couple, Neon and Aria, high school seniors who face a potential split as one of them prepares to attend college. The novel explores the couple's decisions around love and intimacy as they navigate their relationship while receiving mixed advice from parents and friends. In today's episode, Reynolds speaks with NPR's Scott Simon about how rare it is for love stories to be narrated by Black boys and the complexity of young men's interior lives, especially around topics like body image and sex.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Amper's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Boys need romance too. I don't mean
0:07.4	they need to be romanced, although that might be tangentially related to today's pod. But I'm talking
0:13.4	about young adult romance books and how rare it is that they're told from the boys' perspective.
0:19.6	That's something Jason Reynolds is hoping to remedy with his new book 24 seconds from now.
0:24.3	It's about a young couple who've been together for a while, and of course the topic of sex comes up.
0:29.7	In this interview with NPR Scott Simon, Reynolds talked about how people often assume boys are thinking very narrowly about sex and why black boys in particular
0:41.2	deserve better. That's coming up.
0:44.8	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:49.6	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods.
0:56.2	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant
1:01.2	events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get
1:07.0	your podcasts.
1:09.2	Our next story is about young love and discusses some mature themes.
1:15.1	Jason Reynolds' new young adult novel opens in a bathroom where 17-year-old Neon
1:20.4	Benton is nervous and fumbling while his girlfriend.
1:24.7	Aria Wright waits across the hall.
1:27.8	His thoughts are racing.
1:29.9	We ask the author to read from his book.
1:32.5	I hope there ain't no snooze button on this moment.
1:35.5	But if there is, and if Aria hits it and holds off this rise and shine, that's okay, too.
1:42.4	If she wants to do this at a different time or just kiss or whatever
1:46.3	or do other stuff or whatever, I'm good with whatever she wants as long as I make it out of
	...

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