The Nickel Boys, a multi-award winning novel (Pulitzer Prize, Kirkus Prize, National Book Award Nominee, etc etc etc), deserves every accolade. It is based on events that occurred in a reform school in Tennessee that for 111 years abused and neglected boys sentenced there for often minor infractions. The reform school is akin to the residential schools to which Native Americans were sent to “kill the native but save the man,” complete with a secret graveyard of unmarked graves.
Elwood Curtis, a young Black with a promising future, is sent there simply for being hitchhiking and picked up by a Black man who had stolen a car. Once at the Nickel Academy, Elwood learns an infinite series of new definitions of Hell. Though the abuse is horrific, author Whitehead wisely lets the reader’s imagination supply most of the brutal details. Whitehead uses the lives of Elwood and his best friend Turner to illustrate the devastating repercussions that echo through the lives of the boys who manage to survive.
The prose is stark, haunting, and utterly heartbreaking. It stirred an anger within me that Jim Crow America still exists on so many levels and that racism is so deeply institutionalized in America. This should be required reading in high school and college.
********************
The Nickel Boys (Anchor, July 16, 2019) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
********************
You can read my reviews of similar books here:
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Keeper’n Me by Richard Wagamese
********************
This post contains affiliate links to third party sites. These can help you visually identify books I recommend. If you make a purchase, I may receive a small compensation at no additional cost to you. This offsets some of the cost of maintaining this blog.
