The first book I read by Colson Whitehead was Sag Harbor and it was because I too spent loads of time in Sag Harbor, but not the area that Colson did. Even way back then, when he was brand new, I was intoxicated by his writing and I still am. I was so proud of him when he was winning prizes for The Underground Railroad, but I honestly liked earlier novels by him better (although his foray into the Zombie apocalypse was surprising).
Nickel Boys is h is most recent book and it's making waves, exactly as it should. It is based on a school that actually existed in Florida called the Dozier School and the novel itself focuses on acts of abuse that occurs at the fictionalized version of the school, the Nickel School. The Dozier School was operated for about a century before it closed after it had been exposed as a den of torture for the young boys that went there. Whitehead's novel opens with an announcement similar to one that occurred in real life with regards to the Dozier School: that the State of Florida was going to excavate the school grounds for more bodies buried in unmarked graves. In Nickel Boys, students have found numerous bodies with caved in skulls, buckshot marks and other severe injuries that lead to much suspicion and more heartache, particularly for the boys that survived the torture meted out at the school.
The hero of the novel is a boy named Elwood Curtis, a teenager who lives alone with his mother and is one of the most earnest characters that I have ever come across. He is smart and hard working and (of course) has his future brightly before him. Elwood is a very earnest student of the Civil Rights Movement and MLK, Jr. in particular. He loves the Civil Rights movement so much that a record of a speech given by MLK, Jr. is his most prized possession and he plays it repeatedly much like another boy his age would play music records.
But Elwood is also really naive. He's so naive that he almost can't see what is in front of him and why a Civil Rights Movement is so necessary in the first place. He can't seem to figure out that his moral compass is not shared by the vast majority of people living in the South at this time. Nowhere is this naivete more present then when Elwood is arrested on very flimsy evidence, he's sentenced to the Elwood School and he clings to the belief that the law is going to prevail and his white lawyer will help him.
Elwood's reactions to the systemically horrific abuse is actually more of a focus than the actual abuse itself (although these acts play major roles as well, if just to cause Elwood's reaction). I don't feel that I can get into too much more here without revealing spoilers but I really liked it.
I liked this book much more than Whitehead's other novels, even The Underground Railroad. It feels more real world and is something that I think people can envision more since the Civil Rights Movement and the abuses that it dealt with are still relatively new in our history. It also is more scary and difficult in that same vein. It systematically takes apart not only our hopes about changing the future but really challenges MLK and his theory of love.
You have to read this book. Hands down one of the best books of the year.
Nickel Boys is h is most recent book and it's making waves, exactly as it should. It is based on a school that actually existed in Florida called the Dozier School and the novel itself focuses on acts of abuse that occurs at the fictionalized version of the school, the Nickel School. The Dozier School was operated for about a century before it closed after it had been exposed as a den of torture for the young boys that went there. Whitehead's novel opens with an announcement similar to one that occurred in real life with regards to the Dozier School: that the State of Florida was going to excavate the school grounds for more bodies buried in unmarked graves. In Nickel Boys, students have found numerous bodies with caved in skulls, buckshot marks and other severe injuries that lead to much suspicion and more heartache, particularly for the boys that survived the torture meted out at the school.
The hero of the novel is a boy named Elwood Curtis, a teenager who lives alone with his mother and is one of the most earnest characters that I have ever come across. He is smart and hard working and (of course) has his future brightly before him. Elwood is a very earnest student of the Civil Rights Movement and MLK, Jr. in particular. He loves the Civil Rights movement so much that a record of a speech given by MLK, Jr. is his most prized possession and he plays it repeatedly much like another boy his age would play music records.
But Elwood is also really naive. He's so naive that he almost can't see what is in front of him and why a Civil Rights Movement is so necessary in the first place. He can't seem to figure out that his moral compass is not shared by the vast majority of people living in the South at this time. Nowhere is this naivete more present then when Elwood is arrested on very flimsy evidence, he's sentenced to the Elwood School and he clings to the belief that the law is going to prevail and his white lawyer will help him.
Elwood's reactions to the systemically horrific abuse is actually more of a focus than the actual abuse itself (although these acts play major roles as well, if just to cause Elwood's reaction). I don't feel that I can get into too much more here without revealing spoilers but I really liked it.
I liked this book much more than Whitehead's other novels, even The Underground Railroad. It feels more real world and is something that I think people can envision more since the Civil Rights Movement and the abuses that it dealt with are still relatively new in our history. It also is more scary and difficult in that same vein. It systematically takes apart not only our hopes about changing the future but really challenges MLK and his theory of love.
You have to read this book. Hands down one of the best books of the year.
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