The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

A Novel

De: Colson Whitehead

Narrado por: JD Jackson, Colson Whitehead

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This follow-up to The Underground Railroad 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. • "One of the most gifted novelists in America today." —NPR

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE NOMINATED FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD® FOR BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTED BY ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE RAMELL ROSS

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a 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).

Who spoke for the black boys?

“If it is true for you, it is true for someone else, and you are no longer alone.”
― Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys

I'm absolutely sure that there is something beautiful about losing a limb; a leg or arm. This book is beautiful too, but on the first read I'm still just bent over trying to handle the hit in the cut, the pain and the blood. Maybe, if I read it a second time I could experience it without the horror and the pain. But, all of that is necessary, and because of my privilege temporary. Many Americans experienced/experience this book without the ability I have to exit the experience and 'close the book.'

Whitehead is an amazing writer. He is clever, funny, and writes amazing prose, but behind that is an axe and a steamroller. He destroyed me. Sorry if this is disjointed. I'm trying to piece myself together after. Obviously, the Nickel Academy can stand for a lot of things. It can be a metaphor for how we treat black men and boys. It can be a metaphor how we treat minorities in America. It can be a metaphor for our prison system (6 times as many blacks are incarcerated in America than whites). It is all of these things. The horrible thing is this isn't a metaphor. It happened, or something close to it happened, at Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, FL.

It is hard too not to love the two main characters who take two different approaches to the experience of racism and the experience at Nickel. Elwood Curtis is an idealist, raised on an MLK record, who feels like doing the right thing is important, despite the consequences. Turner, his friend, is a skeptic and a survivor. He will shift and move AND survive. Nickel Boys shows how these two friends experience the abuse and power of a racist, white Florida.

This is a story that, like many James Baldwin and Toni Morrison novels, MUST be read.

The Social History Beats the Narrative

Important and interesting social history and a fine and unexpected ending make this book worth listening to even though the narrative and the narration are a bit dull.

Reform School Horror

Based on the true stories of boys living through the horrors of a reform school in 1960s Florida. Heartbreaking and frustrating that humans suffered like this. Whitehead's depictions provide clear images.

This book is an archive of trauma and racist brutality

The narrator is excellent and I couldn't stop listening. This book is for anyone who cares about history from the underside.

Resilience in a bed of horrors

I couldn’t put this book down, even though it was so disturbing, so sad; this book is a shifter of thought and heart. In reading this book, I felt a move from cognitive understanding to feeling at a cellular level with muscles contracting while reading some of the stories.
This book will stay with me not just as a placeholder, but as a call to action.

A compelling book that cries out to be read and understood

This was such a heart wrenching well done book. It is a must read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like a better understanding of what the judicial system did to people of color years ago sadly, I’m afraid things like this are still happening without our knowledge.

captivating

Captivating!

Invoked deep emotions within you. Hard to comprehend this could occur in America

Excellent

Engrossing. Sometimes even a work of fiction feels painfully true. I felt connected to all of the characters.

Wow!

This book will stay with me for a long time. The story is as captivating as it is horrifying and the narration was absolute perfect.

Amazing Account

Coming from Seattle it is difficult to imagine some thing like this could exist in America not so long ago.