For over one hundred years, boys were sent to Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. It was a juvenile reform institution and these boys had committed crimes, run away from home, or just got in the way of authorities. Years later, the site was being cleaned up when dozens of graves were uncovered. Some of the graves were marked, but there was a section in the back with unmarked graves. The school was segregated, black boys in some dorms and white boys in the others, and it appeared as if the graveyards were, as well. Dozier did not rehabilitate the children sent there, but instead used cruel methods to break them. There were regular beatings that some might call torture and boys regularly died in custody.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead tells a novelized version of this story. In this 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner, we are introduced to Elwood Curtis, a "good" black boy who listens to his grandma, works hard at school and his part-time job, and listens to Martin Luther King's speeches on repeat on the record player. He's mistakenly picked up by the authorities for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and is sent to the Nickel Academy, our fictionalized Dozier. We follow him as he is beaten, hospitalized, and then beaten again before he runs away. We cut to him as an adult and what the repercussions of his stay at Nickel were for him.
This is the third Whitehead novel I've read. Whitehead writes undeniably powerful books that make you think about them long after you close the book. If that's his intention, he's successful. I still occasionally think of the scene in The Underground Railroad in which the main character is essentially riding under the train to hide from the slave patrols. The writing is stark, spare, and compelling.
I don't always LOVE the books, though. There's something about Whitehead's writing that is definitely gripping, but the characters are always a bit removed. In The Nickel Boys, Elwood is an absolutely riveting character, but I still don't completely understand his feelings. I understand his motivations for his actions, but I'm left perplexed about how he feels when his good intentions go awry. On one hand, this is an interesting literary technique in that it forces me to think about how I would feel. But, the truth is, this is not something I can fathom happening to me at all. I'm not a young black boy in the south and never have been. I would rather Whitehead actually spell things out for me a bit more.
But, as much as that's the case, I am going to keep reading Whitehead because his writing is so engrossing. His writing is pedantic or didactic, but somehow imparts valuable lessons. The books aren't necessarily FUN to read, but they are well-written and worth your time.
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