The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction): A Novel

I did not give this book four stars because I enjoyed it. In fact, it's an excruciatingly difficult book to finish and not for the fainthearted. Also, unusually powerful. And the winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize. The Nickel Boys is based on a true story, something you learn more about in the author's afterword. The title refers to those youngsters who spent time at a Florida state reform school for boys. During the 1960s, both white and black boys are sent there, though they are housed and fed separately since this period coincides with Southern segregation. Those who run the school make no substantial effort at either education or rehabilitation. Instead, the boys provide endless hours of free labor while facing continual bullying and punishment. It's an institution where racism, sadism, sexual and physical abuse, and political corruption converge. The very reason why it's such a difficult book to read. These are teenagers, after all. The central character is the optimistic Elwood Curtis, unjustly sentenced to Nickel Academy and subjected to its brutality, whose only salvation comes from his deepening friendship with the skeptical Turner. How these two boys navigate a situation none of us would want to experience makes for a compelling story that is well-written. But certainly NOT fun.

I will not forget this book. It is too honest, (although fiction), to simply add to a bookshelf and hope someone asks you about it. it needs to be shared, shouted, and situated in a worthy place. That place being everywhere. Colson stands rightfully on the shoulders of Baldwin, Wright, & Ellison.

Good, but not his best