Reynolds even introduces a fourth generation, Genie’s great-grandfather, with whom this cycle seems to have begun. The author weaves the interior struggles of Genie, Grandpop, Senior, and Ernie, together to show in a profound way how dishonesty and resentment can destroy relationships and how cowardly it is to live in those vices. The storyline of As Brave As You is wonderful and complex. Throughout his stay in North Hill, Genie witnesses Grandpop’s further isolation from his only remaining son, and comes to realize the curse that’s fallen on the men of his family. The father and son become even more deeply embroiled in their conflict due to the disastrous consequences of Grandpop’s insistence that Ernie, Jr., complete the family rite of passage by learning to shoot. His younger son, Genie’s father, Ernie, Sr., has still not forgiven Grandpop for ‘forcing’ Wood into the armed forces. Of course, Grandpop is not the only person impacted dramatically by Wood’s death in Operation: Desert Storm. If he’s blind, how does Grandpop know how to get to his bedroom? How does he know when to stop pouring iced tea? Why does he sit in the room across the hall all day? What is a blind man doing carrying a revolver? Through his inquisitiveness, Genie quickly develops a friendship with Grandpop, and then discovers that his grandfather’s life is governed by fear and guilt: fear of leaving his house, and guilt over the death of his eldest son. Genie has never even met his grandfather, who, he quickly learns, is blind and, according to the man himself, crazy! With no internet access and no cell phone reception, the ever-curious Genie quickly attaches himself to Grandpop to try to understand his many unique and exotic qualities and practices. So, when they’re forced to spend a month with Grandma and Grandpop in rural Virginia, they are entering an unknown world. They are Brooklyn boys, through and through. The Harris brothers have hardly ever stepped foot outside the New York metropolitan area. It turns out that the keys to healing, for three generations of Harris men, are communication and forgiveness. In As Brave As You, the author, Jason Reynolds, shows how harboring resentments and not taking responsibility for one’s mistakes can tear a family apart. When Genie and Ernie arrive in North Hill, Virginia, their dad’s childhood home, they realize that their parents’ isn’t the only relationship in crisis Ernie, Sr., barely speaks to his own father and the silence is clearly concealing some deep family injuries. Their parents, to try to mend their strained marriage, send them to live with their grandparents out in the country for a month in the summer while they go on their first vacation since the boys were born. Genie Harris and his older brother Ernie are city boys whose family life is on the rocks.
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