NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this Pulitzer Prize-winning follow-up to The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel … juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.
Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers and “should further cement Whitehead as one of his generation’s best” (Entertainment Weekly).
Look for Colson Whitehead’s bestselling new novel, Harlem Shuffle!
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This is a good novel but not a great one. The author is talented, indeed having won the Pulitzer Prize for his previous novel, The Underground Railroad. But I leave his books with the feeling that he has made his writing a bit too easy for the reader. Whitehead shares with his readers the tragedies experienced by his African American characters in his novels, but he does not allow his readers to experience with the characters the true pain of being beaten so badly that he be unable to walk.
I believe this author must be willing to put himself through more of the pain of his race, so he can make his readership feel the pain and shutter at the evil imposed on people of color.
Wow! Probably the best book I’ve read this year. The twist at the end blew me away. Colson Whitehead is an extraordinary talent. I love to learn from reading great fiction, but with writing this good, it is always a double-edged sword. As inspirational as it is frustrating, with the realization that real talent is simply in a different league.
Having read about the boys school in Maryanna, Fl. I had an idea what to expect. His rendition was a good read, and informative. Love his writing. On his ‘Underground Railroad’ now.
I found this book to be profoundly disappointing. The pre-pub hype was huge. Major reviews were glowing. As I write this, it is long-listed for the National Book Award.
I had loved THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD for its history, its characters, and the metaphorical fantasy that wove it together. THE NICKEL BOYS had none of that. Make no mistake: this bluntly painful story, based on fact, of a reform school in Florida, is horrific. It is angering and heartrending. This is an important book. I totally understand why the author was compelled to write it.
That said, being a writer, I look at the writing. With this novel, which comes on the footsteps of THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, I struggled. The main character is something of a goody-two-shoes, making the author’s point about the dangers that even the best black boys face. Unfortunately, this good boy seemed bland. Much of the dialogue involving him felt juvenile, so that at times I wondered if this should have been a YA novel. At other times, I felt that the author got carried away describing time and place in ways that had little to do with the theme. And while Whitehead used the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to tie plot elements together, they just didn’t hold.
I do recommend this book, but solely for the subject matter and the light it sheds on racial discrimination and injustice. These subjects are not to be dismissed. But if you’re looking for novelistic imagination, there is little.
There was one plot twist that I did find redeeming. I mention it at the very end of this review because it occurs at the very end of the book. That felt too late for me. But it does give meaning to earlier elements. Moreover, it emphasizes the lifelong emotional damage done to black boys who had the misfortune of being sent to the Nickel Academy.
Powerful and important, but flawed.
The Nickel Boys follows the life of Elwood Curtis, a Black teen with the optimism and passion to fulfill the words of self-dignity and justice echoing from Martin Luther King. When an injustice lands him at a reformatory school in Tallahassee called Nickel Academy, his life changes forever, just like every young man who passes through the school’s network of terror and barbarity. That is, if they survive. You can almost feel Whitehead’s urgency and indignation to confront the horrors at Nickel that Elwood and many others suffer, including Elwood’s friend, Turner. Written in commanding prose with details both vivid and frightening, Whitehead delivers a tour de force with an unforgettable ending that will floor you with heartache, grace, and hope.
Taking in Elwood’s story and what happened to countless boys at the Nickel school of horrors had my heart racing the entire way, culminating with those remarkable ending chapters. They left me wondering if perhaps Whitehead had been imagining a coda as powerful as Morrison’s Beloved, where Paul D returns to care for a broken-spirited Sethe and tells her that she has a life worthy of dignity even after all she’d suffered. The ending of The Nickel Boys had me believing in the indomitable spirit of humanity and the power of literature to make us experience empathy on a level where I absorbed what Turner had chosen to do for Elwood with tears in my eyes.
I owned this book for some time before picking it up to read. I knew it should be read but hesitated because as a resident of Florida I learned of the horrendous things that had happened here and that the story was based on that. Thankfully for me, the author did not elaborate on the sins committed against the boys but factually stated things , and then moved on with the story. Both educating and a great read because of the development of the characters, it has quite a twist at the end.
Heartbreaking story that resonates in 2019 as much as it would back in the days of Jim Crow or even Reconstruction, which makes it all the more tragic. Didn’t anticipate the ending, but it wraps up the story in a way only a master could accomplish. Read it, and then go back to The Underground Railroad, and think about where we live now. Read them again, until you get it.
The Nickel Boys is based on a closed boys reformatory school in northern Florida that abused boys for years under the south’s Jim Crow laws. Whitehead does a commendable job on intertwining fact and fiction. He takes the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King and instills King’s message of passive resistance and love in his young antagonist, Elwood Curtis. Elwood’s promising academic future is cut short when he is sentenced to the school for riding in a stolen car—a car he did not know was hot. Whitehead’s tale is all the more powerful as his voice is without prejudice and interference. I was familiar with the school as I’d read a Tampa Bay Times article on it years ago, as did Whitehead, who turned it into a novel. I will be looking at Whitehead’s back titles.
Great reading!
The Dozier School For Boys is the site of a shameful period in Florida’s history, and the abuses and horror stories are still being uncovered with each gravesite that’s revealed, each survivor’s tale. Colson Whitehead, author of the fabulous and Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Underground Railroad gives us a fictionalized Dozier in the Nickel School, and a tale that’s deeply tragic and also life-affirming.
I couldn’t turn away from this engrossing book despite its bleak reflection of Jim Crow Florida and the abuses of a penal system rife with corruption, crime and cronyism. It’s a searing story beautifully told.
I really loved this story. I felt it was a well written story of what these boys went through at their reform school in Florida. The switch from past to present was confusing at first but I got used to it. There is a twist in this story and once again I did not catch on to it. This is based on a real life reform school and now after reading this I feel the need to learn more about the Dozier boys. This was told during the Civil Rights movement and I felt it made it harder to read at times due to the treatment of these boys especially the African American boys. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
“Violence is the only lever big enough to move the world.” I know I’m going against the majority on this & I was so excited to read it (excited enough to buy it in hard cover), however, I was sadly disappointed. I really liked the main character & was fascinated/saddened to see it was based on an actual place, but Whitehead’s writing style was what ruined it for me. I found it to be a bit unfocused, choppy, & almost frantic at times & left me feeling exhausted & worn out after reading for the night. The good news is that it was only 208 pages, so kinda like being on a bad first date over cocktails instead of a full dinner!
I loved the characters as well as the look into the juvenile justice system and why there are flaws in the system. We also hear stories about people that tend to be overlooked. I also liked seeing what happened to the Nickel Boys after they got out, if they got out. Great ending! Colson Whitehead is a great writer!
Excellent story based on a real boys “reform” school in Florida; how they cheated, tortured and otherwise abused the boys they were supposed to care for – especially the blacks.