Wikipedia

The Nickel Boys

This article is about the novel. For the upcoming film adaptation, see Nickel Boys.

The Nickel Boys is a 2019 novel by American novelist Colson Whitehead. It is based on the historic Dozier School, a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and was revealed as highly abusive. A university investigation found numerous unmarked graves for unrecorded deaths and a history into the late 20th century of emotional and physical abuse of students.

The Nickel Boys
First edition cover
AuthorColson Whitehead
Audio read byJD Jackson[1]
Colson Whitehead
Cover artistNeil Libbert (photograph)[2]
Oliver Munday (design)
LanguageEnglish
Set inFlorida and New York City[3]
PublisherDoubleday
Publication date
July 16, 2019
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages224
AwardsPulitzer Prize for Fiction
Kirkus Prize for Fiction
Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
ISBN978-0-385-53707-0
813.54
LC ClassPS3573.H4768 N53 2019

TIME named it one of best books of the decade.[4]The Nickel Boys won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[5] Judges of the prize called the novel "a spare and devastating exploration of abuse at a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida that is ultimately a powerful tale of human perseverance, dignity and redemption."[6] It is Whitehead's second win, making him the fourth writer in history to have won the prize for fiction twice.[7]

A film adaptation is scheduled to be released on December 13, 2024.

Plot

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The narrative alternates between the 2010s and the 1960s. In the present, Elwood Curtis is an African-American business owner in New York City. As an investigation into the defunct Nickel Academy begins to expose the school's hidden history of atrocities, including many secretly buried bodies on the premises, many men who were incarcerated at Nickel Academy as boys are coming forward to share their experiences of abuse. Curtis is forced to confront the lasting effects of his experiences there.

In 1960s Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis is a studious African-American high school student with an idealistic sense of justice inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Rights marches. He is selected to attend university classes due to his intelligence. However, on the first day of classes he hitchhikes with an African-American man; when they are pulled over and it is discovered that the vehicle was stolen, Elwood is convicted as a delinquent and sent to Nickel Academy, a juvenile reformatory in Eleanor, Florida. Boys at Nickel Academy receive poor education, are made to perform hard labor, and frequently receive brutal corporal punishment. The staff also overlook and cover up sexual abuse and trips "out back" for punishment, from which some boys never return. The students are segregated by race, with Black boys facing worse treatment. Elwood befriends fellow student Turner, who has a more cynical view of the world and Nickel's administration. Elwood attempts to serve his time without incident, but is seriously beaten on two occasions: once for intervening to help a boy being attacked by sexual assaulters, and another when writing a letter to government authorities detailing the academy's poor conditions and corruption. After Turner overhears of a plan to have Elwood killed by the administration, the two attempt an escape. Elwood is shot dead while Turner escapes; it is revealed that Turner falsely adopted Elwood's identity and attempted to live up to his ideals when he was free.

In the 2010s, with an investigation into Nickel Academy ongoing, "Elwood Curtis" reveals his history and real name, Jack Turner, to his wife, then flies to Tallahassee to give testimony of his friend's fate.

Characters

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Whitehead has described the characters as "two different parts of my personality", with Elwood Curtis being "the optimistic or hopeful part of me that believes we can make the world a better place if we keep working at it", and Jack Turner, "the cynical side that says no—this country is founded on genocide, murder, and slavery and it will always be that way."[8]

Development and writing

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Main article: Florida School for Boys

After dealing with slavery in his Pulitzer-prize winning novel, The Underground Railroad, Whitehead did not want to write "another heavy book." However, he felt the election of Donald Trump compelled him to do so.[9] Whitehead deliberately narrowed the scope of the book and grounded it for the sake of realism, choosing not to include the speculative or fantastic elements of his other novels Zone One or The Underground Railroad.[9]

The Nickel Boys is set at a fictionalized version of the Dozier School for Boys, dubbed Nickel Academy.[10] Whitehead first heard of the real life Dozier School on Twitter in 2014.[9] The school opened in 1900 and closed in 2011. The state of Florida ran Dozier, in Marianna, as a reform school.[11] After decades of allegations against the school for allowing the beatings, rapes, torture, and even murder of students by guards and employees, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began an investigation of the claims in 2010, followed by additional investigations by the United States Department of Justice in 2011, and an ongoing forensic investigation by Erin Kimmerle at the University of South Florida which began in 2012.[12][13] The Department of Justice investigation revealed "systemic, egregious, and dangerous practices exacerbated by a lack of accountability and controls".[14] The University of South Florida investigation discovered some 55 graves on school grounds by December 2012, and has continued to identify potential grave sites as recently as March 2019.[15]

Reception

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According to Book Marks, the novel received a cumulative "rave" rating based on fifty-three reviews: forty-one "rave" reviews, ten "positive" reviews, one "mixed" review, and one "pan" review.[16] On Bookmarks September/October 2019 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a       (4.0 out of 5) based on critic reviews with a critical summary saying, "As NPR concludes, "It's a great American novel".[17][18]

Parul Sehgal, in The New York Times, wrote, "Whitehead has written novels of horror and apocalypse; nothing touches the grimness of the real stories he conveys here."[19] The Washington Post critic Ron Charles wrote, "It shreds our easy confidence in the triumph of goodness and leaves in its place a hard and bitter truth about the ongoing American experiment."[20]

NPR's Maureen Corrigan said "It's a masterpiece squared, rooted in history and American mythology and, yet, painfully topical in its visions of justice and mercy erratically denied."[21]

The New Republic wrote, "The Nickel Boys is fiction, but it burns with outrageous truth."[22] Meanwhile, The Guardian wrote, "[Whitehead] demonstrates to superb effect how racism in America has long operated as a codified and sanctioned activity intended to enrich one group at the expense of another."[23]

The book received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, which noted "Whitehead’s novel displays its author’s facility with violent imagery and his skill at weaving narrative strands into an ingenious if disquieting whole."[24]

Awards and recognition

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Film adaptation

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Main article: Nickel Boys

In October 2022, a film adaptation of The Nickel Boys by MGM's Orion Pictures was announced. RaMell Ross, who will direct the film, adapted the screenplay with Joslyn Barnes. The film's cast will include Aunjanue Ellis, Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater and Fred Hechinger. Whitehead will serve as executive producer of the film.[33] The film is set to be released under the title Nickel Boys on December 13, 2024, by Amazon MGM Studios.[34]

References

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  1. ^ "The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead". Penguin Random House Audio.
  2. ^ "Brilliant Book Covers: The Best Covers of July 2019". Bookish. 24 April 2015.
  3. ^ Wagner, Erica (July 26, 2019). "The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead — racism in America". Financial Times. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  4. ^ "The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead: 9780385537070 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  5. ^ Lee, Benjamin (May 4, 2020). "Colson Whitehead and This American Life among Pulitzer 2020 winners". The Guardian. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  6. ^ Maher, John (May 4, 2020). "Moser, Whitehead, McDaniel, Grandin, Boyer, Brown Win 2020 Pulitzers". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  7. ^ Tucker, Emma (May 4, 2020). "Colson Whitehead Wins Second Pulitzer Prize for Fiction". The Daily Beast. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  8. ^ Israel, Yahdon (July 16, 2019). ""The Outrage Was So Large and So Secret": Colson Whitehead Talks Hope, Despair, and Fighting the Power in The Nickel Boys". Vanity Fair. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  9. ^ a b c Israel, Yahdon (July 16, 2019). ""The Outrage Was So Large and So Secret": Colson Whitehead Talks Hope, Despair, and Fighting the Power in The Nickel Boys". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
  10. ^ Grady, Constance (July 18, 2019). "Colson Whitehead's spare, riveting, horrifying Nickel Boys". Vox. Retrieved July 26, 2019.
  11. ^ Allen, Greg (October 15, 2012). "Florida's Dozier School For Boys: A True Horror Story". NPR. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
  12. ^ Kimmerle, Erin. "Interim Report for the Investigations in the Boot Hill Cemetery, Located at the Former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, Marianna, Florida. Documentation of the Boot Hill Cemetery (8JA1860) at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys. Interim Report, Division of Historical Resources. University of South Florida" (PDF).
  13. ^ Kimmerle, Erin H. (2022). We carry their bones: the search for justice at the Dozier School for Boys (First ed.). New York, NY: William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-303024-4. OCLC 1331557745.
  14. ^ United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. Investigation of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and the Jackson Juvenile Offender Center, Marianna, Florida. 1 December 2011, accessed 15 June 2012.
  15. ^ Montgomery, Ben (April 11, 2019). "More 'possible graves' found at Dozier School for Boys". Tampa Bay Times.
  16. ^ "The Nickel Boys". Book Marks. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  17. ^ "The Nickel Boys". Bookmarks. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  18. ^ "The Nickel Boys". Bookmarks. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  19. ^ Sehgal, Parul (July 11, 2019). "In 'The Nickel Boys,' Colson Whitehead Continues to Make a Classic American Genre His Own". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  20. ^ Charles, Ron. "In Colson Whitehead's 'The Nickel Boys,' an idealistic black teen learns a harsh reality". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  21. ^ "Rooted In History, 'The Nickel Boys' Is A Great American Novel". NPR.org. Retrieved August 8, 2019. - Alternate link at Houston Public Media
  22. ^ Livingstone, Josephine (July 30, 2019). "Colson Whitehead, American Escape Artist". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  23. ^ Forna, Aminatta (July 26, 2019). "The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead review – essential follow-up to The Underground Railroad". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  24. ^ "The Nickel Boys". Kirkus Reviews. January 20, 2019. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
  25. ^ "The 2020 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction". The Pulitzer Prizes.
  26. ^ "Colson Whitehead Novel Wins $50,000 Kirkus Prize". U.S. News & World Report. Associated Press. October 24, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2002.
  27. ^ "2020 Youth Media Award Winners". American Libraries Magazine. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  28. ^ "2019 Winners", National Book Awards, National Book Foundation.
  29. ^ Kellogg, Carolyn (January 11, 2020). "Announcing the finalists for the 2019 NBCC Awards". National Book Critics Circle.
  30. ^ "Longlists for the Orwell Prize 2018 revealed". The Orwell Foundation. April 9, 2018.
  31. ^ "Clanchy, Whitehead win 2020 Orwell Prize". Books+Publishing. July 10, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  32. ^ "2020 Audie Awards" Archived 2020-02-03 at the Wayback Machine.
  33. ^ Grobar, Matt (October 27, 2022). "Aunjanue Ellis & Four Others Set For RaMell Ross' Colson Whitehead Adaptation 'The Nickel Boys' For MGM's Orion; Plan B, Anonymous Producing". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  34. ^ "Amazon MGM Studios & Orion Set Fall Release for Feature Take of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novel 'Nickel Boys'". 30 April 2024.
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