Colson WhiteheadTHE NICKEL BOYS

After reading Underground Railroad I was waiting to read another one from Colson Whitehead, so I waited to read this one. The way the author has taken the reader to the racial world of injustice worth mentioning.A great book to read

Colson Whitehead establishes himself as one of the greatest authors of this decade with the Nickel Boys.The story starts with Elwood Curtis, a black boy from Tallahassee, who is raised by his grandmother right from when he was a child. He's influenced by Martin Luther King and maintains the highest moral standards. Elwood is pushed by his high school teacher into attending college. Unfortunately, before he even enrolls in college, he's sent to Nickel, a reform school for a crime that he never committed. Remember that the story takes place during the early Jim Crow era where blacks are discriminated and stomped upon.Nickel is a reform school to the outsiders but it is a prison where students have to face violence, sexual abuse and unforgivable crimes on a day to day basis. Black kids are not even given a chance when it comes to their development. Here, Elwood meets a boy called Turner and what happens next is the story.The Nickel Boys is a harrowing tale of the distressing Jim Crow era where blacks were subjected to racial discrimination and were victims of unforgivable crimes. A must read for everyone to understand the impact of segregation and racial discrimination on the modern era.Interestingly, the setting for this story is based upon a real real reform school in Florida called the Dozier school for Boys.

Excellent story.

Product was delivered on time and came well-packaged. The cover could easily have dirtied, but it was clear and brand new. The print is large and easily readable, nothing to say about Whitehead’s writing.

This Pulitzer Prize winner exceeded our fairly high expectations! We couldn’t skip a single word of this compelling book, rich in detail. Whenever the protagonist Elwood understands and awakens to his right to equality, the atrocious system gives him a beating, and whatever little he has is snatched away from him. To think that young black boys went through such suffering not long ago is harrowing and upsetting.This book is a story of their fate, traumatic experiences, the evil and corrupt system, and their quest for freedom. The writer excellently captures how a traumatic past never leaves the sufferer and marks him for life. The twist towards the end made the book a masterpiece in our eyes.

“We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.”Inspired by real-life events, ‘The Nickel Boys’ is angsty and barbaric. One of the darkest phases in American history, a time when systemic racism was deep-rooted in society, thereby destroying thousands of bright and talented black lives.Elwood Curtis, a perceptive and astute child, dreams of a college education. He was raised by his strict but loving grandmother, in a family that has always lived under the shadows of racism, losing it’s members one by one to meaningless violence. As a child, Elwood loved reading, absorbing and memorizing anything with reach. His idolized Martin Luther King Jr. and grew up listening to his speeches and dreaming of a better world. His nature was shaped by King Jr.’s speeches, and over the years we find him struggling to find peace between the way of life he wanted to lead and the workings of a cruel world.After a borrowed ride in a stolen car on his first day to a Black college, Elwood is sent to a reformatory school called ‘The Nickel Academy’. The residents of this school are teenagers, both ‘black and white’, who have committed sins like petty theft, truancy, ‘disrespecting’ a white person, etc, or are orphans or runaways.The Nickel Academy, a juvenile reform school, claims to teach its youth, skills that will help them survive in the world, a place where overall development is the sole focus. But behind all this facade is a facility that practices unspeakable brutality. The Black kids are subjected to prejudice and the punishment is based solely on the whims of the staff. Students are beaten black and blue for minor mishaps and sometimes they disappear ‘out back’ forever.“To think of those Nickel nights where the only sounds were tears and insects, how you could sleep in a room crammed with sixty boys and still understand that you were the only person on earth. Everybody and nobody around at the same time.Elwood, ‘as good as any other’ tries to fight against injustice and corruption with a good heart and decent motives. But once he meets the cynical Turner, he begins to wonder if the answer to cruelty is cruelty itself. As Elwood talks about his past life, while he is in New York trying to settle down, he repeatedly mentions how his experiences still haunt him.“was like one of those Negroes Dr. King spoke of in his letter from jail, so complacent and sleepy after years of oppression that they had adjusted to it and learned to sleep in it as their only bed.”The book gives us a piece of history that will bring up all the pent up rage you’ve had against every act of racism you encountered or read. ‘The Nickel Academy’ is a fictionized version of an actual reform school in Florida, a school where countless unidentified skeletons were found, severy tortured and lost within the Earth without a proper burial. Whitehead’s prose is interspersed with quotes from the actual victims and Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches that inspired thousands of Black youth to fight for recognition and respect through a simple act of love and acceptance.‘The Nickel Boys’ is not only about this school, but who people inherently are. Elwood, an idealist tries to move forward by believing in the good in people whereas Turner is more cynical and believes in finding ways to stay clear of any mess through extensive planning and connections. The narrative is plain and in very few words, the author feeds us bitter truths, leaving the readers to feel this mindless and severe injustice. It is brutal in more ways than one. Elwood’s strength and innocence draw attention and stay with the readers until the very end.

Foul language could have been avoided.The theme was strong. Prologue and Epilogue were convincing. Okay.

Eye opening account of the brutal reality of racism. Makes you question whatever you thought you knew. How many generations will it take to wipe out the impact of a few milligrams of melanin? And, to think we might be sliding back again....