The Nickel Boys in Reading with Style

Jul 21, 2022 Connie G rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, african-american-experience, florida

"Even in death the boys were trouble."

"The Nickel Boys" is inspired by the real Dozier School for Boys with its unmarked graveyards in Marianna, Florida. The segregated Dozier School does not deserve to be called a school since little schoolwork was done. It was the staff, not the boys, that committed the crimes at the reform school that was open from 1900-2011. The boys were whipped, sexually abused, put in solitary confinement, and even murdered. Some of their food and supplies, provided by th "Even in death the boys were trouble."

"The Nickel Boys" is inspired by the real Dozier School for Boys with its unmarked graveyards in Marianna, Florida. The segregated Dozier School does not deserve to be called a school since little schoolwork was done. It was the staff, not the boys, that committed the crimes at the reform school that was open from 1900-2011. The boys were whipped, sexually abused, put in solitary confinement, and even murdered. Some of their food and supplies, provided by the State of Florida, were sold to people in town with the money kicked back to the directors. The boys worked on a farm, made bricks, and did work out in the community to support the school with some of the funds pocketed by the directors. When anthropology students from the University of South Florida found a graveyard full of murdered youths, the truth about the Dozier School emerged. Parents had been told that their murdered sons had run away from the school or other lies. Author Colson Whitehead's fictional story, set in the 1960s, about the Nickel School is partly based on testimony by formerly incarcerated boys.

Elwood Curtis was an intelligent black adolescent in the Jim Crow South who admired the teachings of Martin Luther King. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he hitchhiked, and was picked up by a guy in a stolen car. Elwood was sent to Nickel, and was severely whipped within 24 hours for trying to break up a fight. Elwood, who believed in social change, was befriended by Turner whose philosophy was to always stay unnoticed, under the radar, to survive. All the boys were significantly traumatized by their time in Nickel.

"The boys could have been many things had they not been ruined by that place. . . . They had been denied even the simple pleasure of being ordinary. Hobbled and handicapped before the race even began, never figuring out how to be normal."

"The Nickel Boys" is an important book to read. While everyone was mistreated, the prejudiced staff treated the black residents even worse than the white boys. It was a difficult book to read in some parts since it's troubling to read about violence directed toward children. There needs to be real oversight of both juvenile reform schools and adult prisons. Author Colson Whitehead wrote an excellent novel with a surprise near the end of the book. ...more

44 likes · Like · see review

Dec 12, 2019 Tanya Patrice rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

Really excellent story! Only reason it's not 5-stars is because sometimes the writing felt a little awkward. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2020 Ann rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020, rws-winter-20-21

I hated this book.
It’s *awful*. To get through it I drank more than one cocktail and was eating Nutella right out of the jar. I hated every minute of this.
But it’s not misery porn. It’s a good book, just awful. It joins *Jude the Obscure* in my “Best Bad Books” list. Stark, bleak, written in a way that draws you in and then guts you.
I was hoping that some of the villains would get theirs... but some nice cathartic revenge is too much to ask of a good bad book.
Today is a cold rainy day, and I sh ...more

Like · see review