Review: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Winner of the 2020 Pulizer Prize for Fiction.

Synopisis: 
As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is “as good as anyone.” Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is a high school senior about to start classes at a local college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides “physical, intellectual and moral training” so the delinquent boys in their charge can become “honorable and honest men.”
In reality, the Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors. Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold onto Dr. King’s ringing assertion “Throw us in jail and we will still love you.” His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.
The tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision with repercussions that will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys’ fates will be determined by what they endured at the Nickel Academy.
The book is based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children.

Review:

Colson Whitehead has written a lovely story about a gruesome history at the School for Boys in Marianna, FL. As someone who has grown up most of my life in Tallahassee, I went into this book with the excitement to learn more about the history of the area. There were many places mentioned in the book that I was able to visualize because I live right there, although I went to a different Lincoln High School. 

Whitehead achieved the historical elements mixed in with the fictional story. It made it a very enjoyable reading experience because it wasn't a dry text that you might find in a history class. I appreciated that the main character was constantly questioning the notion of loving those who are cruel to you noted by Dr. King.  The added plot twist was an interesting choice to say the least. 

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