The Nickel Boys: A Novel

We follow Elwood Curtis in 1960’s Florida. When he was a teenager he was wrongly accused of stealing a car and sent to a juvenile reform school for boys (which is actually about a real school, Dozier School for Boys in Florida). Awful things happened to the boys (especially if they were black) that attended this school.

This book has been sitting on one of my shelves since 2019, far too long. this was real and heart wrenching. This is my second Colson Whitehead book, Underground Railroad being the first. I’m a fan.

“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.”

Fantastic but sad book. Really well written.

This book takes place in Florida during the Jimmy Crow era, and is based on the Dozier School for Boys in Florida. Segregation, racism, abuse, and friendship are heavily shown throughout the novel. I have never been a historical fiction type of girl, but this book kept me engaged from start to finish! Elwood is a kind and intelligent young man who works hard, makes straight A’s, and somehow manages to never fit in with the crowd. But the the perfect way to describe him is “too good for his own will”. He was always trying to do what’s right.. but a wrong place at the wrong time situation landed him in a reform school. This story is raw and honest, be prepared for your heart to be tugged. Elwood was going through traumatic experiences at Nickel Academy but he’s making connections with people in ways that he never has before. Elwood and Turner quickly grew closer as friends and relied on one another. Their differences made them stronger. This book sent me through a ROLLER COASTER of emotions. I laughed, I experienced disappointment, and even felt some of their pain, but most importantly I saw the importance of trust and friendship, and how it can get you through the darkest times.

The Writer Colson Whitehead was inspired by the archaeologist found at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida in the summer of 2014 to write the novel, The Nickel Boys, which was published in 2019 (Whitehead 211). Whitehead also read survivors’ accounts of life at the Dozier School for Boys to research writing his novel (Whitehead 211). I read the book on my Kindle. I thought the book was well done. In the short novel, Whitehead captures a feeling of dread that institutions like the Dozier School for Boys inspire in its inmates, both during their time in the institutions and after their time in the institution. Whitehead writes about a character named Elwood who is inspired by the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. Whitehead writes that “I quote the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr a bunch; it was energizing to hear his voice in my head” (Whitehead 212). All of the speeches of King that Elwood listened to in the novel were real speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. (Whitehead 212). The novel, The Nickel Boys is set in the early 1960s. Part of the themes in The Nickel Boys is when the thinking of King met old, racist institutions such as the Dozier School for Boys in the early 1960s. Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys is a novel about the long-term effects of institutions such as the Dozier School for Boys on its former inmates.

Beautifully written, harrowing story of racial persecution set in a boys reformatory school in Florida, circa 1950’s. A heartbreaking, highly recommended read.