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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.
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4.5 stars rounded up.I can’t quite articulate what Colson Whitehead is doing, but I’ve noticed a pattern across his novels in the way he uses space, time, and movement to explore the concept of freedom. I’d need to revisit his work to elaborate further, but there’s something compelling about how these elements intertwine in his storytelling.I go back and forth on whether history like this should be fictionalized, but there are benefits to the way Colson Whitehead has chosen to tell this story. What stood out most to me is how effectively he portrays the many layers of gendered violence Black males face, as well as its long-lasting, devastating effects.I also couldn’t help but read this as a commentary on respectability politics and maybe even a critique of the shortcomings of the Civil Rights Movement and MLK’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance. I wonder if others interpreted it in the same way.