I so appreciate this author's ability to be frank and truthful about the atrocities that many people have suffered without sensationalizing or relishing in violence. As a survivor of sexual assault, I want these kinds of stories to be told but often find myself avoiding them because of how they're portrayed. The way it was handled in The Underground Railroad felt respectful, real, and honest, and for the first time in a long time did not leave me feeling shaken and sick after reading. He has an exceptional ability to convey the gravity and depth of suffering without making the violence feel gratuitous. I expect it will be the same in this new book - can't wait to read it.
26
Looking forward to reading this. I fell in love with Whitehead's writing when I was 18 and read Sag Harbor. Thanks for this piece.
7
Thanks, Colson! Can't wait to read "The Nickel Boys!"
7
Pulitzer?
8
I pre-ordered this months ago; the Underground Railroad was the first book, since undergrad, I finished and immediately started to read again. Can’t wait to read this; the author writes with a consistent clarity and sense of purpose rarely encountered in contemporary literature.
24
Captivating review of a mesmerizing subject and author. Can't wait to order the book.
6
Beautiful review, thank you. I loved "Underground Railroad" so I shall read The Nickel Boys though I dread it.
18
Even in Nickel Academy, he vows to make the best of it. “He consoled himself with the notion that he just had to keep doing what he’d always done: act right.”
Is such a "notion" only a notion, only a naive consolation for the dispossessed? I don't know, but thank whatever powers that be, there continue to be heroic souls who somehow fasten on pole stars only dimly sensed by the rest of us. And persist.
23
Can’t wait to read The Nickel Boys. Thanks for this article.
“And America, too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. The white race believes —believes with all its heart — that it is their right to take the land. To kill Indians. Make war. Enslave their brothers. This nation shouldn't exist, if there is any justice in the world, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty. Yet here we are.” — The Underground Railroad
39