Nickel Boys

Author: Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead is one of only four writers to have won the Pulitzer prize twice. His first win was in 2017 for “The Underground Railroad” and the second one in 2020 for “The Nickel Boys”.  The book vividly describes the gruesome and barbaric conditions in a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. While it is a work of fiction, it is based on the recent discoveries of the horrors that transpired at the “Dozier School for Boys” in Florida. The shocking realization for me was that this school was operating all the way until 2011 when it was finally closed!

Nickel Boys tells the story of young Elwood Curtis who is a promising black teenager, unlucky to find himself on the wrong side of the law. Without any due process, he is shunted to the Nickel Boys reform school where his life gets turned upside down. I won’t go into the gruesome details here, but Whitehead spares no words in describing the abuse and dehumanization perpetrated against Black youths at the Nickel reform school. Whitehead's spare, elegant prose renders the abuse with gut-wrenching clarity - from the capricious beatings in the notorious "White House" to the haunting depictions of boys disappearing into punishing confinement never to be seen again. 

All through the book I found myself cheering for Elwood, clinging to the hope that he will find a way out. Colson Whitehead has some tricks up his sleeve that I won’t describe her so as not to spoil the final chapters in the book. 

Pick up this book and you will not put it down until you finish it.