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A review by corinnekeener
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
5.0
We read The Nickel Boys for episode 55 of the Bookstore Podcast. You can listen to it on our website or almost anywhere you get your podcasts.
The Nickel Boys is the story of one black boy's time spent incarcerated at a fictional - based on a real - reformatory school in Florida in the 1960's. Sentenced for a crime he was not guilty of, Elwood is forced to endure brutal beatings and mistreatment along with a cast of other students who have been broken by the institution.
The violence recounted by the book is a necessity. I wouldn't call it graphic, but it is inherent at the school. The students in the black school at Nickel are subject to racial violence and sexual assault. The boys who were lucky enough to survive Nickel have an assortment of traumas. Never allowed a normal life after what they endure. It's, terrifyingly, the perfect illustration of how institutional racism and violence destabilize generations of people.
While I thought that Elwood's narrative was engaging and often brilliantly written, something in the pacing here was uneven and rushed. Maybe it's because I'm a huge fan of Whitehead's Underground Railroad, but it didn't feel like it got the time it needed. Really a minor quibble though, for an otherwise spectacular novel.
The Nickel Boys is the story of one black boy's time spent incarcerated at a fictional - based on a real - reformatory school in Florida in the 1960's. Sentenced for a crime he was not guilty of, Elwood is forced to endure brutal beatings and mistreatment along with a cast of other students who have been broken by the institution.
The violence recounted by the book is a necessity. I wouldn't call it graphic, but it is inherent at the school. The students in the black school at Nickel are subject to racial violence and sexual assault. The boys who were lucky enough to survive Nickel have an assortment of traumas. Never allowed a normal life after what they endure. It's, terrifyingly, the perfect illustration of how institutional racism and violence destabilize generations of people.
While I thought that Elwood's narrative was engaging and often brilliantly written, something in the pacing here was uneven and rushed. Maybe it's because I'm a huge fan of Whitehead's Underground Railroad, but it didn't feel like it got the time it needed. Really a minor quibble though, for an otherwise spectacular novel.