The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

I shouldn't be, but am surprised continually about the cruelty inflicted upon children by the adults into whose care those children are entrusted, whether that is through institutions and governments or by birth. It's so painful to see young hearts and minds wounded by cruelty and neglect. And in The Nickel Boys, Whitehead delivers cruelty and neglect in spades.

Based upon real events at the Dozier School in Florida's panhandle in the 50s through 70s, The Nickel Boys follows Elwood Curtis, a curious and sensitive boy, through his early childhood and into the injustice which puts him at the mercy of The Nickel School and its sadistic administrators.

You see, Elwood has a touch of the principle in him. He's idealistic. He believes in righteousness and fairness. He's been inspired by the speeches of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Unjustly sentenced as he is, he has no survival skills for a place like Nickel. Taken under the wing of a savvy boy named Turner, Elwood tries, and fails, to overlook the gross incompetence and flagrant corruption that keeps Nickel's leadership flush with pocket money and influence in the community.

That Elwood does not belong there is so obvious, and the atmosphere around every page that Elwood inhabits is so full of anxiety for his safety, that this book's short length is a gift because the pain in contains is immense.

I don't want to give too much else away except to say that survivors of the Dozier School, like their fictional counterparts at Nickel, have formed a support group and the shared trauma of their experience is something no one should have to suffer. Perhaps how a society treats its vulnerable children is telling more about the society than the children caught up in its disciplinary systems.

The Nickel Boys is a hard read emotionally, but for the understanding and empathy it encourages, it is an important one too.

4/5 Stars.