Author: Colson Whitehead
Publisher: Double Day 2019
The story is based on a true story of a reform school for boys in Florida. For black boys in Tallahassee in the early 60s, an unforeseen mistake was enough to destroy their future. Elwood is a studious teenager brought up by his strict grandmother. One impressed teacher helped him enroll in a nearby college. He hitchhiked on his first day to college only to find out when stopped by a cop that the driver was driving a stolen car. Convicted as an accomplice to the crime, Elwood was sent to the Nickel Academy, a juvenile reformatory in Florida.
The Nickel Academy is supervised by white racists who beat and abuse children. Any boy who resists is likely to disappear “out back”. This is the story of the lives of Elwood and his buddies in the Nickel Academy.
I have mixed feelings about this book. The story is good, but sometimes it was like reading a report than a novel. The true story of the actual “Nickel Academy” can be found on the Internet, if you look hard. But, I am not going to include any information of this website, in case, if a reader of this note wants to read this book.
The following is a passage from the book that I thought was enlightening. (Mr. Marconi owned a shop in the neighborhood Elwood grew up in.)
Kids swiped candy, it didn’t matter what color their skin was. Mr. Marconi himself, in his untethered youth, had engineered all sorts of foolishness. You lose a percentage here and there, but that was in the overhead—kids steal a candy bar today but they and their friends spend their money in the store for years. Them and their parents. Chase them out into the street over some little thing, word gets around, especially in a neighborhood like this where everybody’s in everybody’s business, and then parents stop coming in because they’re embarrassed. Letting the kids steal was almost an investment, the way he looked at it.
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