The Nickel Boys

Was expecting to love this Whitehead but only liked it. I was very moved by Elwood's story in the beginning, but despite the twist (which was well done but telegraphs out pretty early on) and the stakes constantly being raised, I was less invested and the story seemed to be too. I definitely want to read more about the real Dozier school after this, and think it would be very discussable in a high school classroom paired with all sorts of other greatness, like nonfiction about the Dozier school, or articles by Nikole Hannah Jones or Between the World and Me, or the New Jim Crow, or We Are Not Yet Equal, etc.

One sentence synopsis... Although extremely well-written and tackling important subject matter (the horrors of a Southern reformatory school for boys in the 1960s) ‘Nickel Boys' left me oddly unaffected by the characters and predictable plot twist.

Read it if you like... tragedies, this one will beat you down and break all idealism.

Dream casting... ‘Stranger Things' Caleb McLaughlin as studious Elwood Curtis and Abraham Attah as his jaded friend Turner.

Après avoir lu le bouleversant [b:The Fire Next Time 464260 The Fire Next Time James Baldwin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562890148l/464260.SY75.jpg 1129041] de [a:James Baldwin 10427 James Baldwin https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1343346341p2/10427.jpg], j'ai eu envie de lire d'autres oeuvres sur la question raciale aux Etats-Unis : j'ai alors retrouvé ce roman de Colson Whitehead dont j'avais entendu parler il y a quelques mois et dont parlait très récemment l'émission de radio “Le Masque et la Plume” sur France Inter à l'occasion de la sortie de la traduction française. J'ai tout de même choisi de lire la version originale, pour profiter tel quel du style de l'auteur.Les critiques du Masque et la Plume m'ont un peu gâché une partie du plaisir en dévoilant qu'il y avait une surprise narrative à la fin du roman, ce qui fait que j'ai pu la découvrir avant qu'elle ne soit dévoilée. Qui sait si j'aurais été surpris si je ne savais pas qu'il y avait une surprise ? Le savoir m'a sans doute permis de faire attention à certains détails significatifs auxquels je n'aurais peut-être pas prêté attention sinon.Quoi qu'il en soit, c'est un bon roman, indéniablement. Il nous plonge dans la Floride du début des années 1960, et plus particulièrement dans une maison de correction qui maltraite tous ses pensionnaires, en particulier les noirs, dont certains ne ressortent pas vivants. Le roman s'ouvre de nos jours, avec la découverte des ossements des victimes des décennies passées. Il nous propose ensuite de nous mettre dans la peau d'Elwood, un adolescent noir qui se retrouve enfermé dans cet enfer pour complicité dans un vol de voiture dont il est totalement innocent.Le récit est classique pour ce genre d'histoire, mais cela fonctionne parfaitement. C'est pour moi un éclairage supplémentaire sur le sort réservé aux minorités, en particulier les noir-américains, plus d'un siècle après l'abolition de l'esclavage. J'imagine que d'autres livres abordent ce thème avec plus de force, mais j'ai suffisamment apprécié la prose de cet auteur pour avoir envie de découvrir ses autres romans.

I don't know what I was expecting, but this was quicker and more shallow than I expected. I had already heard about this story on a podcast so perhaps that made this experience a little less moving. Also, I was expecting a bit more twist from the author of Underground Railroad to make the story his own. I do like that he brought more light on the subject and respect his decision to stay truer to the survivor's stories.

Heartbreaking.

I prefer to know as little about a book going in as possible. If it's good by reputation and of a general subject matter to interest me — or if it seems an especially important work, as this one — then I prefer to take the ride the author intends, discovering the book in the initial read. Such was the power of ‘The Nickel Boys' that I was unsure if I was reading a disguised memoir, what they unfortunately now refer to as a ‘nonfiction novel', or if it was a work of pure, if brutalized imagination. The truth was, as many truths are, somewhere in the middle. Based on the all-too-real Dozier School for Boys, this book's characters may be fictional but their stories are true. From here arises the heartbreak.

It is unfortunate that the story which unfolds is in many ways predictable. Stories of brutalized prisoners litter history as do stories of abused children, and the story of the torture of the Black Man in America is so common that it has permanently warped us as nation, an eternal specter hovering over the shoulder of anyone speaking of American exceptionalism and greatness. ‘The Nickel Boys' is very much a story of that torture, but these tortured boys were not only black, and so calling this a story of black oppression doesn't quite hit the mark. Should we ask how can we as a society imprison our young? I think the question is larger than even that: Can we really punish people into falling in line? This seems to me the greatest myth in a book filled with the misdeeds of people acting out whole hosts of destructive myths. While it is surely necessary to remove people who endanger others, the notion that we need to do so brutally in order to punish is one of the great tragedies of society. We should imprison with regret, trepidation. We should mourn all those whose freedoms are so taken away, no matter how warranted. Until we can do so, ideas of greatness and exceptionalism need to be stricken from our collective hearts.

Colson Whitehead is a very good writer, at least as far as this book demonstrates. I've not yet read another. The novel's power is found in the story's arc, and so reading ‘The Nickel Boys' in one sitting would be best. At about 250 pages, this is not unreasonable. Much of the book is a straightforward telling, without artifice and literary tricks. Whitehead understands language and can dip into poetic registers when it suits the narrative, but generally let's the power of the story tell itself. Mostly it's an important book. And heartbreaking. Did I mention heartbreaking?

Colson Whitehead's story of Elwood Curtis' experience at a boys reform school in the 1960s is both impactful and heartbreaking. In The Nickel Boys Whitehead explores themes of injustice and prejudices during the period of the Civil Rights Movement. There are many references to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, which inspire the main character's perspective and behavior. The events in the book are shocking, but not surprising to anyone with knowledge of the horrors of that time period in history.

The story follows Elwood Curtis, a black teenager with hopes of attending college and taking part in the Movement. He is greatly impacted by the words of Martin Luther King, Jr, specifically his encouragement to the black community to have a “sense of dignity and...somebody-ness.” This leads Elwood to seek to do the right thing always, even when it may be foolish and put in him in harms way. When he gets an opportunity to attend college classes while still in high school, he is excited and optimistic about his future. However, on his way to his first class, he is arrested for a crime he does not commit and sent to the Nickel Academy, a reform school for troubled boys. At this academy, he experiences abuse and degradation that challenge his ability to maintain his “sense of dignity” that he so values.

The setting of this book, the Nickel Academy, is very grim. The supervisors and “housemen” are mostly hard, abusive men who seek to degrade and demoralize the boys in the school. While the outside of the school appears well-maintained and pleasant, it hides some dark and sinister rooms where boys are abused, both physically and mentally. Elwood seeks to reveal these secrets to the outside world.

Elwood is an idealistic character who believes that he can maintain his sense of self and impact the world if he just does the right thing in every situation. The Nickel Academy will test his idealism. He meets and befriends Turner who is much more realistic about the world and seeks to “get along” and survive. Turner helps Elwood survive the school as much as he can, but Elwood's ideals put him at odds with the school's leaders in several situations. Their friendship is one of the shining elements of this story.

The story line jumps from past to present a few times in the books. We see Elwood and Turner in the 1960s, but we also witness some of the outcomes for characters later in their lives. There is a twist toward the end that is surprising for the reader. Even though there are a few hints at this twist along the way, it took me by surprise. It added an interesting element to the plot.

Overall, this is an emotional read that brings important themes to light. These themes of injustice and prejudice are not new, this book presents them in different perspective and setting than usual. I really enjoyed and learned a lot from this book. I highly recommend it to all readers.

Elwood Curtis works hard, plays by the rules and gets good grades. He's filled to the brim with the speeches of Martin Luther King advocating for love in the face of oppression. And yet, on his way to attending college, gets in the wrong car. The driver is essentially pulled over for driving while black and Elwood - guilty by association - is sent to Nickel Academy.

Playing by the rules and doing right gets you nowhere. Elwood is left scarred after trying to break up a fight. His black body is sold out as labour to the townsfolk - Elwood painting a gazebo Dixie White. His food is sold off to restaurants and grocery stores. And yet King's words reverberate in his head “Do to us what you will and we will still love you.”

Meanwhile Turner, Elwood's friend at Nickel, has a different view. It's about hustle and reliance on the self alone. Seeing how things are run and running around them. He knows a single misstep could mean disappearing out back. Disappearing for good.

It is those two ideas that face off in how to be in the world and how there often is no clear answer.

A great example of the right ending clicking things perfectly into place and highlighting the themes in ways that get better the more I think about them. The ending made the book more tragic and less cynical than I expected it to be.

As a general story there are issues I could point at with the light plot, simplistic characters, and detached tone. But as a topical novel shining a light on horrific parts of the past that stays with you after you put it down, it's a great read.

This novel won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for fiction as well as the Kirkus Prize for fiction and the National Book Award for fiction. I approach these type of novels with long lists of accolades like this with trepidation, mostly because I've found I haven't really enjoyed most of them. The same could be said for recent Oscar winning Best Picture movies (I'm looking at you, Green Book) or Grammy winning best albums of the year (I'm glaring at you, Morning Phase by Beck). With the exception of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, I haven't enjoyed many of the recent Pulitzer Prize winners for fiction. They have left me wanting. Until now. The Nickel Boys is fantastic and well-deserves the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. With wide, impressionistic swathes, it paints a harrowing picture of a racist boys institution in Florida during the early to mid-twentieth century, and it does a masterful job in an efficient 200 pages.

Judges of the Pulitzer Prize called the novel “a spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption.” It tells the story of Elwood Curtis, a smart, quiet, and inquisitive Black boy from Tallahassee, Florida, the kind of boy who would read encyclopedias for fun, if he owned a set. But he is also naïve and too easy-going. On his way to college, he hitchhikes in the wrong car, and is sentenced to Nickel Academy for being in a stolen car. There, he befriends a boy named Turner, and their hellish life at the racist school is revealed. Elwood and Turner are very different but ultimately very similar, too, as we learn throughout the book. By the end, you will wonder how they even got that far. Nickel Academy is Hell on Earth.

Whitehead has a marvelously observant eye, as seen here when he introduces Elwood's boss at a local tobacco shop. “Mr. Marconi left his perch by the register as seldom as possible. Squat and perspiring, with a low pompadour and a thin black mustache, he was inevitably disheveled by evening. The atmosphere at the front of the store was stringent with his hair tonic and he left an aromatic trail on hot afternoons. From his chair, Mr. Marconi observed Elwood grow older and lean toward the sun, veering away from the neighborhood boys...” Ever so keen on details, Whitehead also shows restraint at other times, giving sparse but descriptive details, allowing the reader's imagination to fill in some of the horrific events without bogging the reader down in the ugly details. If you're in Hell, what's the point of describing the details of window dressings?? Whitehead can paint a detailed picture with few strokes. Genius.

Whitehead describes Elwood's observations of racism at Nickel as “an indiscriminate spite, not a higher plan.” And that there makes the hellish abuse of Nickel crueler and ever more undeserving to a smart boy like Elwood. He still tries to find the joy in speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. and hopes to find the deliverance of King's promise. But his friend Turner thinks the best thing to do is avoid evil like an obstacle course. What's the best course of action?

There is no better time than now to read The Nickel Boys, a magnificent novel that begs you to stare at the ugliness of racism and demands an empathetic response.

I loved this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 5 stars.

This is my first time reading Whitehead, which is ridiculous as I have had The Underground Railroad on my night table for months. Despite not being an epic, I think this is as close to the perfect American novel one can get. I was, in turns, filled with hope and horror and shame. I see Elwood Curtis as a hero of the people. My review cannot do this novel the justice it deserves. When I wasn't reading I was looking up information about the Dozier School for Boys, looking for Elwood in the pictures. Whitehead's storytelling chops are peerless.

As most knw by now, this book hits hard. The story is intense, and gives you the constant sense of desperation of knowing that things will not necessarily improve. The author is great in keeping the pace and tone not too heavy, so reading this book is not a chore, but it will definitely make you think. I have now read 3 books from this author and only one “Harlem Shuffle”, wasn't great.