The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead, JD Jackson · first published 2019
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short, harrowing novel based on a real reform school. It offers emotional power and literary craft, and it ranks above many classics of American fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral tra
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Colson Whitehead brought out a novel about this, The Nickel Boys. It is short, harrowing, and worth reading.
on “The Bones of Marianna” ↗…metalworking, and skateboarding) so I think so! Fiction recommendations: - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. This book absolutely wrecked me emotionally (in a good way) for weeks after reading it - The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. I enjoyed this even more than the Underground Railroad, which was also great. Both also won a Pulitzer for what it’s worth. - The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea. This…
on “Good Books for a Lousy Year” ↗…recommendations based on my 2020 reading. Fiction recommendations: - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. This book absolutely wrecked me emotionally (in a good way) for weeks after reading it - The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. I enjoyed this even more than the Underground Railroad, which was also great. Both also won a Pulitzer for what it’s worth. - The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea. This…
on “I'll pay you to read my book (2013)” ↗…immediately comes to mind - with Pulitzer Prize-winning James, a nuanced and insightful retelling of Huckleberry Finn, or 'I Am Not Sydney Poitier' which works almost as an homage to Steinbeck. 'The Nickel Boys' by Colson Whitehead I'd argue surpasses most of Steinbeck's more popular canon (Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row etc...). A magnificent novel in the very best of the american tradition. 'A Visit from the…
on “Books by People – Defending Organic Literature in an AI World” ↗…especially "classics I never got around to." I didn't meet my personal target of 30 books (got sidetracked writing my blog), but definitely read things that stuck with me. Notable and beautiful - "The Nickel Boys" by Colson Whitehead - "Blind Sight" by Meg Howrey - "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. LeGuin Non-fiction - "Workflow" - "Game Engine Black Book: Wolfenstein 3D" - "Debugging: The 9 Indispensible…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗I’m not shaming him, but the idea that Wolf Hall and The Nickel Boys are “trash” is bizarre and, as I said, ridiculously dismissive. They both won multiple national-level awards for best novel of the year. This is also ridiculously dismissive: > It helps no one to know…
on “Why Are We Living in a Golden Age of Historical Fiction? (2019)” ↗…Clarke - Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman - The Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow - The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy - Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher - The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett - The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗